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


Finance

Wall Street’s crypto push has been years in the making, says Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley’s Amy Oldenburg said banks are expanding into crypto not because of hype, but after years of infrastructure development.

CoinDesk

Markets

Bitcoin slips below $70,000, Circle's 16% slide leads crypto stock sell-off

Market participants are now pricing in rate hikes, and it could be weighing on risk assets.

CoinDesk

Finance

Tether hires a 'Big Four' firm for a full audit of USDT reserves

The audit aims to address long-standing questions over USDT reserves and push new disclosure standards.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino at White House

Tech

Solana Foundation taps Mastercard, Western Union, Worldpay for institutional developer platform

The platform is a toolkit that lets enterprises create and scale financial applications on Solana without deep crypto infrastructure expertise.

Solana (SOL) Logo

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Finance

New York Stock Exchange taps Securitize to build its tokenized stock platform

The move comes as the race to bring equities to always-on blockchain markets is heating up after Nasdaq obtained regulatory approval for its tokenization plan.

Credit: Shutterstock

Finance

BitGo, Susquehanna Crypto offering institutional OTC access to prediction markets

New partnership lets hedge funds and other large investors trade event contracts using crypto collateral held on BitGo’s platform.

Computer monitors and a laptop screen show trading charts on a desk overlooking an expanse of water at sunset. (sergeitokmakov/Pixabay)

Markets

Bitcoin holds above $70,000, but future direction hinges on Iran-U.S. 'talks'

Cryptos bounced on Trump’s five-day pause announcement, but the next move hinges on whether tensions between the U.S. and Iran ease or spiral, a Wintermute trader said.

Bitcoin (BTC) price on Monday (CoinDesk)

Markets

Prediction market boom spurs new VC fund backed by Polymarket, Kalshi CEOs

The fund, called 5c(c) Capital, is aiming to raise $35 million to fund startups tied to the rapid growth of event-based trading markets.

Crystal ball (Credit: Zhenyu LuoUnsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

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Markets

Strategy tops up capital-raising plans, bringing potential bitcoin buying power back to $42 billion

Expanded share issuance plans and new Wall Street partners boost capital raising firepower.

Strategy CEO Michael Saylor

Finance

Pharmaceutical firm pivots to stablecoins, holds nearly 9% of SKY's supply

Nanocap NovaBay Pharmaceuticals changed its name to Stablecoin Development Corporation.

Money on a printer (Clay Banks/Unsplash)