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

SUI Token Drops Nearly 6% After Brief Spike as Stronger U.S. Dollar Pressures Crypto Market

SUI reversed gains from an overnight rally amid a broader crypto sell-off and rising U.S. Dollar Index.

CoinDesk

Markets

BNB Token Rallies to Record High as CEA Industries Raises $500M for Treasury Strategy

Several listed companies announced plans to create BNB crypto treasuries recently, including CEA Industries (VAPE), teaming up with Binance founder CZ's family office.

Binance's former CEO, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao (Photos from Smorshedi/Wikimedia Commons and CoinDesk/Flickr, modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

BONK Surges 6% as Solana Ecosystem Momentum Sparks Investor Interest

BONK rebounds on institutional accumulation while Solana NFT metrics hit quarterly highs

BONK-USD, July 28 2025 (CoinDesk)

Finance

DeFi Sector TVL Hits 3-Year High of $153B as Investors Rush to Farm Yields

Ethereum leads the DeFi boom with nearly 60% market share, while advanced yield strategies and rising activity on Solana and Sui drive cross-chain growth.

Farming (James Baltz/Unsplash)

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Finance

Sky's Grove Expands to Avalanche With $250M RWA Plan, Partnering With Centrifuge, Janus

The expansion brings tokenized versions of credit and U.S. Treasury funds to Avalanche as part of the network's institutional finance push.

The Avalanche booth at HBC 2022 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Finance

Finance Firm Mill City Ventures to Buy $441M in SUI Tokens, Pivoting to Crypto Treasury Strategy

The non-bank lender will allocate nearly all of a $450 million private placement to Sui’s native token

treasure, gold

Finance

Zodia Markets Raises $18.25M to Fuel International Expansion, Stablecoin Payments

The Series A funding round was led by Pharsalus Capital and included contributions from Circle Ventures, The Operating Group and XVC Tech

Headshot of Zodia Markets CEO Usman Ahmad

Markets

Bitcoin Miner MARA Holdings Upgraded to Overweight at JPMorgan; IREN and Riot Cut to Neutral

The bank updated its miner estimates to reflect second-quarter earnings and changes to the network hashrate and the bitcoin price.

Canadian Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Will Soon Be Listed on the Nasdaq

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Markets

XRP, DOGE, SOL Lead Crypto Selloff, But Altcoin Season Still in Play if This Happens

Bitcoin's dominance lost a key level, and confirmation could ignite a broader altcoin season, a Coinbase analyst noted.

bear-and-bull-crop

Markets

Polkadot's DOT Faces Bearish Pressure Despite Recovery Attempts

The token has significant support in the $3.87-$3.93 range, with resistance at the $4.11 level.

DOT-USD Ends Lower at $3.96 Amid Bearish Pressure and Late Institutional-Fueled V-Shaped Recovery