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

Solana's Crypto-Governance Hub Realms Is Under New Management

The project is spinning out of Solana Labs and its new leaders want to turn a profit.

Scenes from Solana's Miami Hacker House in April 2022 (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Markets

Solana Token Issuer Pump.Fun Rakes in Big Bucks With 1M SOL in Lifetime Fees

Active addresses grew to 85,000, of which 37,000 were new wallets, indicative of strong demand. Meanwhile, Lookonchain data shows that Pump’s creators are raking in profits.

image of a crypto trader aka degen (Anjo Clacino/Unsplash, modified by CoinDesk)

Policy

Ripple Co-Founder Larsen Flooding Kamala Harris' Election Effort With XRP

Chris Larsen has donated more than $11 million to the vice president's election effort, sending millions worth of the crypto token to the Democratic super PAC Future Forward, according to his comments and federal records.

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said he's backing Vice President Kamala Harris' election effort with $10 million in XRP.

Markets

Bitcoin Pulls Back Below $67K; Is Another Crypto Rally Failing?

It's been an excruciating seven-plus months for the bulls as upside price breakouts have continually been reversed.

Bitcoin price on Oct. 21 (CoinDesk)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: SOL Surges 7%, Leading Index Gain Since Friday

Hedera's HBAR joined Solana as a top performer, rising 5.6% over the weekend.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-10-21: leaders

Markets

ONDO Spikes 8% as Major Derivatives Exchanges Mull BlackRock's BUIDL as Collateral Option

The governance token of Ondo Finance has often moved on news related to BlackRock's tokenization push as a proxy, even if direct impact isn't clear on the protocol.

ONDO token price on Oct. 18 (CoinDesk)

Markets

MicroStrategy's 'Nav Premium' Shouldn't be Feared, Says Benchmark, Raising Price Target to $245

The company's use of "intelligent leverage" differentiates its stock from other means of gaining exposure to bitcoin, argued analyst Mark Palmer.

Michael Saylor at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee

Markets

Bitcoin Isn't at a Record Like Gold and S&P 500, but an Overlooked Catalyst Suggests a Coming Change

The downtrend in the yen has resumed in strong fashion, a good sign for risk assets, crypto among them.

Crypto stocks are starting the week in a bullish frame of mind. (Delphine Ducaruge /Unsplash)

Markets

Staked Ether Is Creating a Benchmark for the Crypto Economy, Says ARK Invest

The growing use of stETH in DeFi protocols means ether’s yield is slowly taking the role of the federal funds rate in the crypto ecosystem, according to a report from Ark Invest.

Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, at Consensus 2024 by CoinDesk (Suzanne Cordiero)