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

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)

Finance

UK asset manager puts $68 billion of funds on-chain via Calastone token network

Legal & General Asset Management brings decades-old money market funds onto blockchain rails to expand access and enable faster settlement.

Blockchain Technology

Finance

Tether adds $70 million in bitcoin to reserves, bringing holdings above 97,000 BTC

The USDT stablecoin issuer has now accumulated over $7.1 billion in bitcoin as part of its strategy to recycle up 15% of its profit into BTC.

Tether

Tech

The Protocol: Bitcoin proposal that could freeze quantum-related coins

Also: AI agents & crypto payments, CoW Swap hijack, ZK proofs on XRPL.

Quantum computer. (Getty Images)

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Markets

TeraWulf stock declines on $900 million share sale to fund AI data center expansion

The shares had been on a big run higher, rising more than 50% since late March.

An engineer sits at a bank of crypto mining rigs.

Policy

Pakistan lifts seven-year ban, allowing banks to service crypto providers

Pakistan sent a letter to all banks and financial regulatory firms notifying them that they may provide crypto services,, but remain barred from trading or holding crypto assets.

Old State Bank of Pakistan building. (Asim Iftikhar Nagi/Wikimedia Commons)

Markets

Trump-backed WLFI moves to unlock 62 billion tokens after $75 million loan controversy

The project would burn 4.5 billion tokens while beginning to vest 40.7 billion tokens for founders and the team, restructuring locks that were originally set to be indefinite.

World Liberty Financial leadership team. (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Markets

Bitcoin's $76,000 breakout fails but a rare signal is hinting at major market bottom

Derivatives funding rates have now remained negative for 46 days, a streak last seen following the FTX crash which marked the bottom of 2022's crypto winter.

CoinDesk

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Policy

The next Fed chair has crypto exposure in his portfolio. Here are the details

Kevin Warsh's financial disclosure reveals stakes in DeFi protocols, Ethereum scaling networks, a Bitcoin Lightning startup, and prediction markets — all of which he's promised to sell.

Kevin Warsh

Finance

Rakuten to allow XRP to be used as payment method by its 44 million customers

Rakuten Pay users will also be able to spot trade XRP via the Rakuten Pay app and exchange the Japanese e-commerce giant’s points to purchase Ripple’s token

Rakuten headquarters. (Akonnchiroll/Wikimedia Commons)