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


Policy

CBDCs Good for Payments, Even With Competition: IMF

The International Monetary Fund's planned CBDC handbook offers guidance for policymakers on how to explore digital versions of sovereign currencies.

The IMF is looking at crossborder payments using CBDC (World Bank/Flickr)

Markets

El Salvador Remains in the Red on Bitcoin Holdings, But Losses Are Narrowing

It's been a bit more than two years since the country made bitcoin legal tender there.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele (Getty Images)

Finance

Solana-Based Stablecoin Remittances Get a Boost with CFX Labs' Fresh $9.5M Fundraise to Expand Globally

Remittances are one of the most compelling use cases for stablecoins, offering fast, non-stop settlements and cheap transactions using blockchains as payment rail.

CFX Labs' payment network, MoveMoney (CFX Labs)

Policy

Germany's Commerzbank Wins Crypto Custody License

It's the first German full-service bank to be granted the custody license, according to a statement.

Commerzbank Tower in financial district, Frankfurt, Germany (Marco Bottigelli/Getty)

Tech

National Hockey League Comes Around to Digital Collectibles, Using Sweet Platform

NHL Breakaway launches with Sweet, a platform for brands to create NFT collectibles under the Ethereum ERC-721 standard on Polygon and the Ethereum mainnet.

Rendering of NHL Breakaway promotion on Sweet's website. (Sweet, modified by CoinDesk)

Finance

Crypto Giant OKX Goes Live With Off-Exchange Derivatives Trading

Asset manager CoinShares, along with crypto custody joint venture Komainu, are aiming for TradFi standards in derivatives settlement with much-reduced counterparty risk.

(Pixabay)

Policy

Crypto Custodian Hex Trust Obtains Full Dubai Operating License

This final approval allows the firm to offer digital asset custodial services to institutional clients and sophisticated investors in Dubai.

Dubai (Wael Hneini/Unsplash)

Markets

Crypto Bulls Hit by $300M in Liquidations as Bitcoin, Ether Buckle on Fizzling ETF Momentum

Tuesday's sharp decline in crypto prices spurred the largest daily leveraged long liquidation since August, CoinGlass data shows.

Crypto liquidations per day for all assets combined (CoinGlass)

Markets

Bitcoin Drops 4% to $35K Despite Soaring Tradfi Markets, But Analysts Remain Optimistic

An unexpected slowdown in inflation sent stock and bond markets sharply higher, but crypto was left out, possibly due to declining enthusiasm about the imminent approval of a spot bitcoin ETF.

Bitcoin price on Nov. 14 (CoinDesk)

Finance

Fake BlackRock XRP Filing Referred to Delaware Department of Justice

A check of the process for registering a trust in the state apparently leaves a ready opening for bad actors.

(Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)