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


Finance

Elon Musk's X hires crypto-savvy design lead as X Money payments push inches closer

Benji Taylor, former CPO at Aave Labs and design head at Coinbase's Base, brings self-custody wallet and DeFi product experience to the social media platform.

X owner Elon Musk and Benji Taylor, design lead (Benji Taylor/X)

Finance

BitGo teams with ZKsync to build tokenized deposit infrastructure to bring banks onchain

Now in testing, the platform aims to enable programmable payments and simplify blockchain adoption for financial institutions.

BitGo at NYSE. (X/Matt Ballensweig)

Finance

Solana bets on AI agents: Foundation says network is becoming core infrastructure for ‘agentic’ internet

This shift could fundamentally reshape internet business models, Solana Foundation's Vibhu Norby believes.

Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain and Solana Foundation chief product officer Vibhu Norby (Digital Asset Summit 2026)

Tech

The Protocol: Ethereum faces make-or-break moment as scaling, quantum and AI pressures mount

Plus: Solana developer platform, Balancer Labs to shut down and Bitcoin mining concentration triggers small reorg.

Graphic showing ethereum symbol on a grid with screens. (Ethereum)

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Markets

Circle selloff may be overdone as crypto bill weakens Coinbase edge, say analysts

The latest draft of the CLARITY Act hit both stocks, but one analyst says the bill could ultimately shift bargaining power toward Circle and away from Coinbase.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Tech

Ethereum Foundation prepares for quantum threat with new cryptography roadmap

The effort to protect Ethereum from quantum computing threats has been underway for eight years and is now producing working code.

Graphic showing ethereum symbol on a grid with screens. (Ethereum)

Finance

Franklin Templeton puts its $1.7 trillion weight behind Ondo to bring 24/7 stock trading to the blockchain

The move expands access to U.S. markets as tokenized securities gain traction among digital investors.

CoinDesk

Finance

UK political crypto donations banned by Starmer government

The government halted crypto political donations over concerns about foreign interference, as the Rycroft review warns that anonymity risks undermine democratic transparency.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

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Markets

Cipher Digital stock rises 9% on new data center deal with Hyperscale tenant

The new 15-year hyperscale lease and $200 million in financing underscore the push into AI data centers.

Mining equipment (Shutterstock)

Finance

Crypto broker Bitpanda launches blockchain to connect EU banks with tokenized assets

The Vienna-based firm is joining the growing race joins race to build compliant blockchain rails for traditional securities like equities and funds.

Bitpanda CEO, Eric Demuth, at Consensus Hong Kong (CoinDesk)