Stephen Alpher

Stephen is CoinDesk's managing editor for Markets. He previously served as managing editor at Seeking Alpha. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., Stephen went to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, majoring in finance. He holds BTC above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.

Stephen Alpher

Latest from Stephen Alpher


Markets

Gold Futures Hit Record on U.S. Tariffs, Possibly Boosting Safe-Haven Case for Bitcoin

Gold’s surge has often preceded gains in BTC as both assets attract safe-haven flows during macro uncertainty.

Close-up of stacked gold bars. (Jingming Pan/Unsplash)

Markets

Bitcoin Surges Past $117K as Trump Taps Stephen Miran for Federal Reserve

An executive order paving the way for crypto to be included in 401(k) plans is also helping boost prices on Thursday.

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.

Finance

Bitcoin Miner Core Scientific’s Third Largest Shareholder Opposes CoreWeave Deal

Two Seas Capital has come out against Core Scientific's proposed all-stock acquisition by AI cloud provider CoreWeave.

Core Scientific facility in North Carolina. (Core Scientific)

Markets

DOT Gains as Much as 4% in Strong Bullish Breakout

Polkadot rallied on triple the normal volume as institutional buyers drove momentum.

"Polkadot (DOT) surges 4% on triple-volume institutional buying before resistance caps gains at $3.80"

Advertisement

Markets

BNB Climbs Then Retraces Amid $500M Treasury Push

The token experienced a sharp rally earlier in the day, reaching a local high of $778, but a rapid sell-off followed, trimming gains made during the advance.

BNB price chart (CoinDesk Data)

Markets

Decentralized Finance and Tokenization Growth Still Disappoints: JPMorgan

Total value locked (TVL) in DeFi remains below 2021 highs, the report noted.

Lending money, bills on a person's hands (Christian Dubovan/Unsplash)

Finance

Ripple to Buy Stablecoin Payments Firm Rail for $200M to Boost RLUSD

The Rail acquisition is a way for Ripple to delve deeper into the fast-growing stablecoin ecosystem after launching its RLUSD stablecoin

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse at Korea Blockchain Week. (Parikshit Mishra/CoinDesk)

Markets

Michigan’s State Pension Boosts Bitcoin ETF Stake, Signaling Cautious Confidence in Crypto's Future

The State of Michigan Retirement System disclosed ownership of 300,000 shares of the ARK Bitcoin ETF as of June 30, or about $11.3 million worth at current prices.

Lansing, capital of Michigan. (justcade95/Unsplash)

Advertisement

Finance

DeFi Cheers as SEC Affirms Liquid Staking Protocols Aren’t Securities

The SEC’s new guidance on liquid staking boosts governance tokens like LDO and RPL, while TVL across protocols holds steady at $67 billion.

(Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Markets

Bitcoin Realized Prices Climb as Investors Continue Accumulating

All key cost basis models are trending higher, reinforcing strong on-chain support and investor confidence.

CoinDesk