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

Stablecoin yield infrastructure project raises $13.5M in round led by Sky Ecosystem

Osero is coming with three products: Earn, App, and Foundry.

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

Finance

Privacy emerges as crypto’s next 'killer app,' with Arc, Canton and Tempo topping $1 billion in funding

New fundraising rounds for three institution-focused blockchains show how regulation, privacy and corporate competition are reshaping crypto infrastructure, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan.

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

Markets

live

Live markets: Bitcoin climbs back to $80,800 as U.S. stocks bounce into the close

Inflation rose to a three-year high in April, according to this morning's Consumer Price Index report.

Poor inflation data hits markets (Getty Images)

Finance

Anchorage is stepping back from Robinhood and Kraken-backed stablecoin group

Anchorage Digital co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley said there will be ‘increased neutrality’ from his firm on stablecoins.

Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley

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Finance

Tom Lee's Bitmine slows down ether purchases after already buying 1 million tokens this year

The firm bought roughly 26,000 ether last week, a sharp decline from the average of the previous weeks' 100,000.

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine and cofounder of Fundstrat, speaking at Consensus 2026 in Miami (CoinDesk)

Markets

U.S. added 115K jobs in April, nearly doubling expectations

The data comes ahead of what's expected to be a new Federal Reserve chairman taking the reins at the U.S. central bank later this month.

Hiring

Finance

AI agents and large corporates will lead the next stablecoin boom, executives say

Stablecoins are entering a new phase of adoption, with large corporations using them for cross-border treasury flows while AI agents begin using blockchain rails for autonomous payments, Bridge and Deus X Capital executives said at Consensus 2026.

Tim Grant, CEO of Deus X Capital (left) and Lindsey Einhaus, head of strategy and operations of Bridge (middle) on stage at Consensus 2026 in Miami (CoinDesk)

Markets

Coinbase stock declines 5% after missing Q1 estimates on crypto slowdown

The crypto platform missed on the top and bottom lines as falling digital asset prices weighed on trading activity and investor sentiment.

Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, at Consensus 2019 (CoinDesk)

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Finance

CZ floats Binance.US revival to give U.S. users access to global crypto liquidity

The Binance founder said BNB Chain is the optimal payments rail for automated transactions between AI agents, noting that U.S. crypto policies are improving.

Binance founder CZ at Consensus Miami (CoinDesk)

Policy

Tether executive warns the 2026 midterms could have 'seismic impact' on crypto industry

Jesse Spiro, Head of Government Affairs at Tether, said at Consensus Miami 2026 that the midterms will be a key test for whether crypto’s recent policy gains in Washington can survive politically.

(Roibu/Shutterstock)