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

Even a mountain of T-bills won't save Tether and Circle from a sudden liquidity crisis, expert says

The head of digital assets and tokenization at one of Germany’s largest asset managers said that USDT and USDC are not stablecoins, from his perspective.

Union Investment's Christoph Hock said that in his opinion USDT and USDC are not stablecoins and therefore pose great risks for investors. Olivier Acuna/CoinDesk)

Markets

This bitcoin bear market is different with 'uniquely pessimistic' traders limiting downside, K33 says

The research firm said bitcoin traders remain unusually defensive, reducing the risk of the kind of leverage-driven collapse seen in prior downturns.

bear-and-bull-crop

Markets

Hyperliquid’s HYPE one of crypto’s most undervalued assets, says Bitwise

The crypto asset manager argued the market is mispricing Hyperliquid as a niche derivatives exchange instead of a fast-growing “super-app” for global trading markets.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan (Suzanne Cordiero/CoinDesk/Shutterstock)

Markets

Live markets: Bitcoin gives up $77,000 as interest rates continue surge, stocks continue slump

Crypto markets have turned lower in morning U.S. trade on Tuesday as the idea of coming rate hikes takes a toll on risk assets.

Kevin Warsh (Getty Images)

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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