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


Policy

U.S. DOJ hits Paxful for $4 million in case tied to illegal sex work, money laundering

The crypto platform's penalty was sharply reduced due to its ability to pay, according to U.S. authorities.

The U.S. Department of Justice grabbed another of the men it alleges moved billions in criminal money at BTC-e.  (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Finance

Hong Kong remains committed to digital assets but feels competition from an ‘aggressive’ UAE

Dubai and Abu Dhabi have established a solid regulatory framework for virtual assets, and each region has brought this under the auspices of a single, dedicated regulatory authority.

From left to right, Johnny Ng, founder of web3 investment firm Goldford; Joseph Chan, under secretary for financial services and the Treasury in Hong Kong; Gary Liu, co-founder & CEO Terminal 3 (moderator)

Finance

Ondo and Securitize execs say utility, not hype, will drive tokenization’s next phase

Executives from both firms say the next phase of tokenization must prioritize functionality and compliance during a panel at Consensus in Hong Kong.

Left to right: Graham Ferguson, head of ecosystem at Securitize; Min Lin, managing director of global expansion at Ondo; and Coindesk’s Kris Sandor (Coindesk)

Policy

SEC's Paul Atkins grilled on crypto enforcement pull-back, including with Justin Sun, Tron

The U.S. agency's chairman said in a House hearing that he's open to a confidential briefing for lawmakers on the topic.

Justin Sun speaks at Consensus Hong Kong (CoinDesk)

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Markets

JPMorgan bullish on crypto for rest of year as institutional flows set to drive recovery

After bitcoin fell below its estimated production cost, the bank said stronger fundamentals and rising institutional inflows could lift crypto in 2026.

Credit: quietbits / Shutterstock.com

Finance

Institutional crypto platform BlockFills said to halt withdrawals, restrict trading

It's shades of 2022, when any number of crypto platforms were forced to suspend withdrawals as prices crumbled.

(Nadine Shaabana/Unsplash)

Markets

Cryptos crumble, bitcoin falls through $66,000, as Friday's bounce fades

With so many other asset markets in rally mode, investors for the moment appear to have moved on from crypto.

CoinDesk

Markets

BlackRock takes first DeFi step, lists BUIDL on Uniswap as UNI jumps 25%

BlackRock will make shares of its $2.2 billion tokenized U.S. Treasury fund tradable on the decentralized exchange Uniswap.

CoinDesk

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Markets

Analysts react as Robinhood slumps 10%, with slowdown in crypto trading weighing on results

JPMorgan and Compass Point were among the sell-side teams trimming price targets on HOOD.

Robinhood logo on a smartphone screen

Markets

Bithumb admits to ‘serious flaws’ that left internal systems vulnerable to potential sabotage

The South Korean crypto exchange’s CEO Le Jae-won said the lack of proper controls led to the erroneous transfer of bitcoin worth more than $40 billion to customers. Most has been recovered.

Bitcoin bus (Photo: Olivier Acuna/Modified by CoinDesk)