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

Stripe doubles down on blockchain and stablecoins, aiming to become 'AWS for money'

Demand is emerging fastest in the Global South and cross-border use cases, where cards fail and currencies are unstable, said Adrien Duchâteau, Stripe's crypto GTM lead.

Adrien Duchâteau, Head of Crypto GTM at Stripe (RWA Summit)

Markets

Strategy proposes semi-monthly dividends on its popular STRC preferred stock

"[The] proposed changes are intended to stabilize price, dampen cyclicality, drive liquidity, and grow demand," said Executive Chairman Michael Saylor.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at the Digital Asset Summit in New York City on March 20, 2025. (Nikhilesh De)

Markets

Beaten-down digital asset treasury names lead crypto stock surge as bitcoin hits $78,000

Oil prices slumped as Trump said Iran committed to open the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. plans to acquire that country's enriched uranium as part of a deal.

CoinDesk

Markets

Back in the black: Strategy surges 8% as bitcoin's rise to $77,000 puts holdings in profit

Bitcoin climbed above its 100-day moving average, while Strategy moves back above its 200-week trend level.

Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor at the Digital Asset Summit in New York City on March 20, 2025. (Nikhilesh De)

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Markets

Bitcoin rises past $76,000, aiming at major breakout as oil plunges on Iran cooldown

Iran's foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz will remain completely open for the remainder of the ceasefire.

Oil tanker at sea. (Gerhard Traschütz/Pixabay)

Tech

Cardano's Charles Hoskinson says Bitcoin's quantum fix is a hard fork that can't save Satoshi's coins

The Cardano founder argues BIP-361 is mislabeled as a soft fork and that its zero-knowledge recovery plan cannot rescue roughly 1.7 million pre-2013 bitcoin, including Satoshi's holdings.

Consensus 2025: Charles Hoskinson, CEO & Founder, Input Output

Markets

Bitcoin slides back below $74,000 as breakout to higher levels fails again

The $75,000-$76,000 range has proven to be stiff resistance as bitcoin attempts to claw back this year's losses.

Wall

Tech

VerifiedX brings privacy layer to Bitcoin as institutional demand for confidentiality grows

A new zero-knowledge-powered system enables shielded bitcoin transactions, reflecting a broader push across crypto to address the “privacy gap” keeping institutions off public blockchains.

A padlock secures a gate hasp. (Shutterstock)

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Tech

Wall Street trading-tech is coming to crypto as DoubleZero rolls out high-speed data for Solana

The project, called DoubleZero Edge, offers a real-time feed of raw data from the Solana blockchain, giving traders faster access to information that can influence prices.

Zapper adds NFT and DAO dashboards. (Shutterstock)

Markets

Bitcoin capped at $75,000 as Nasdaq and S&P 500 fly to new record highs

The Nasdaq was higher for the 11th consecutive session as investors looked past the conflict in the Middle East.

Markets look past Middle-East conflict. (Getty Images)