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

How the war in Iran and trader positioning could be behind the surge in Circle's stock

Shares were up another 9.7% on Monday, bringing them nearly to double over the past month.

Circle logo in front of a building

Markets

Crypto and stocks add to gains as Trump says Iran war could be over soon

It's been a historic 24 hours for crude oil, which soared to $120 per barrel overnight on Iran worries, but has plunged back to just above $80.

U.S. President Donald Trump  (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

Markets

Bitcoin rises to $69,000, stocks reverse big early losses, as crude oil sinks back below $100

WTI crude oil, which soared nearly 30% to $120 per barrel overnight, has pulled back to $95, easing pressure on risk assets.

Bitcoin (BTC) price on March 9 (CoinDesk)

Finance

Josh Swihart's Zcash Open Development Lab raises $25 million in seed funding

The capital will be used to expand development of the Zcash (ZEC) protocol and its privacy-focused self-custodial mobile wallet, Zodl.

Stacks of 100 dollar bills (Dmytro Glazunov/Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

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Markets

Stock market volatility hits one-year high, possibly marking bitcoin bottom

Bitcoin has its own volatility gauge (BVIV), and that spiked in early February, suggesting crypto markets may have already experienced their panic phase.

BTC vs VIX (TradingView)

Finance

'Mini crypto winter' nearly over, says Tom Lee as Bitmine ramps up pace of ether acquisition

The company now holds more than 4.5 million ETH, worth over $9 billion, though it is sitting on a loss of nearly $8 billion.

Thomas Lee, chairman of Bitmine and CIO of Fundstrat, on the main stage during Consensus Hong Kong 2026 (David Paul Morris/Consensus)

Finance

KAST raises $80 million at $600 million valuation to expand stablecoin payments platform

Funding will support product expansion, licensing and compliance as the company scales a platform for cross-border stablecoin payments.

Crypto card payments. (Photo by Thriday on Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

Finance

Bithumb faces proposed 6-month partial ban over South Korea AML breaches

The suspension, according to local media reports, would only restrict virtual asset transfers for newly registered users, not affecting existing customer operations.

South Korea (Photo by Daniel Bernard on Unsplash/Modified by CoinDesk)

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Markets

Michael Saylor's Strategy made $1.3 billion bitcoin purchase last week

The company now holds 738,731 bitcoin purchased for about $56 billion and worth roughly $50 billion at the current price just shy of $68,000.

Michael Saylor, Executive Chairman of Strategy (MSTR)

Markets

Bitcoin tumbles below $66,000 as oil prices explode nearly 20% higher

There was little sign over the weekend of any de-escalation in the war against Iran.

North Sea oil rig.