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

Strategy logs 100th bitcoin purchase announcement, adding 592 coins last week for $39.8 million

Led by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company now holds 717,722 bitcoin, purchased at an average price of $76,020 per coin, for a total of $54.56 billion.

Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy (MSTR)

Markets

Bitcoin slides 5%, tumbling below $65,000 as whale selling grows and recent buyers lock in losses

On-chain data from Glassnode and CryptoQuant shows large holders dominating exchange inflows while short-term investors continue to sell at a loss, pointing to a fragile base-building phase.

CoinDesk

Finance

To freeze or not to freeze: Satoshi and the $440 billion in bitcoin threatened by quantum computing

As quantum computing inches closer to reality, nearly 7 million bitcoin, including Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1 million coins, are potentially at risk.

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

Finance

SportFi’s next act: onchain markets built around match-day results

An area of blockchain-based finance focused on increasing fans' engagement with sports teams, SportFi uses tokens to grant access to privileges such as limited voting rights and exclusive rewards.

Soccer fan in stadium (Damon Nofar/Pixabay, modified by CoinDesk)

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Markets

How AI is helping retail traders exploit prediction market 'glitches' to make easy money

A fully automated bot quietly captured micro-arbitrage opportunities on short-term crypto prediction markets, netting nearly $150,000

Robot girl (Gabriele Malaspina, Unsplash)

Markets

Blue Owl liquidity crisis has investors bracing for 2008-style fallout — it could mean bitcoin's next bull run

Private-equity firm Blue Owl Capital (OWL) tumbled nearly 15% this week as it was forced to liquidate $1.4 billion in assets to pay investors looking to exit one of its private credit funds.

GFC

Markets

Bitcoin shrugs off Trump's new tariffs, nears $68,000 as altcoins lead modest bounce

Crypto prices edged higher on Friday despite a splash of tariff turbulence after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Trump's levies illegal.

Bitcoin (BTC) price (CoinDesk)

Finance

Specialized AI detects 92% of real-world DeFi exploits

New research claims specialized AI dramatically outperforms general-purpose models at detecting exploited DeFi vulnerabilities.

hackers (Modified by CoinDesk)

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Finance

RWA issuers prioritize capital formation over liquidity, according to Brickken survey

Exclusive fourth quarter data shows 69.2% of issuers are live, while 84.6% report regulatory friction shaping tokenization rollout.

Nasdaq (By Luca Marfè -Wikimedia Commons/Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

Bitcoin pops then drops as Supreme Court strikes down Trump tariffs

As has been typical in crypto markets of late, even the most modest move higher was met with immediate selling.

Donald Trump points at the audience during a press conference at the White House.