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

Revolut wants to take Dogecoin mainstream with its new physical payment card

The European fintech giant is launching a physical debit card that lets users spend the popular meme coin anywhere Visa and Mastercard are accepted with zero extra exchange fees.

(Proxima Studio / Shutterstock.com)

Markets

Ex-OpenAI's Leopold Aschenbrenner bets big on crypto miners for his $13.6 billion AI play

Aschenbrenner is shorting Nvidia and AMD in favor of bitcoin miners that own the electricity and data centers needed to fuel the next phase of the AI boom.

CoinDesk

Markets

Live markets: Bitcoin gives up all of May's gains, slipping below $77,000

Strategy made a mammoth $2 billion bitcoin purchase last week, but it's not lifting crypto spirits or prices.

Kevin Warsh (Getty Images)

Finance

Bitmine buys the dip as Tom Lee ties ether's pullback to rising oil prices

The Ethereum treasury firm bought over 71,000 ETH last week, a sharp increase from the previous week's purchases.

Tom Lee on the Mainstage at Consensus Miami 2026

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Markets

Strategy made mammoth $2 billion bitcoin purchase last week

Michael Saylor and team added 24,869 BTC last week, bringing total holdings to 843,738 coins.

MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor (CoinDesk)

Markets

Tokenization push could pull trillions of dollars into DeFi, StanChart says

The bank projects $4 trillion of tokenized assets by 2028, boosting demand for blockchain-native lending and trading infrastructure.

Art installation reminiscent of digital ecosystems

Markets

Strategy to repurchase $1.5 billion of 2029 convertible bonds using cash or bitcoin sales

Led by Michael Saylor, the company aims to retire half of its outstanding 0% 2029 converts as it restructures liabilities tied to its bitcoin treasury strategy.

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

Markets

Bitcoin hits $82,000, Coinbase leads crypto stock gains as Clarity Act advances

The upbeat public debut of AI chipmaker Cerebras is also helping to lift both crypto and traditional markets.

Bitcoin (BTC) price on May 14 (CoinDesk)

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Markets

Cerebras shares skyrocket 100% after $5.5 billion IPO amid AI stock frenzy

The AI infrastructure company began trading Thursday as investors continue pouring capital into artificial intelligence stocks.

Nasdaq (Shutterstock)

Finance

Stablecoin-powered neobank Fasset raises $51 million to expand across emerging markets

The Shariah-compliant digital bank is part of a growing wave of fintech startups building banking and payments services on top of blockchain and stablecoin rails.

Globe (Subhash Nusetti/Unsplash)