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

LatAm Bank Littio Ditches Ethereum for Avalanche as Demand for RWA Vaults Grows

Avalanche's low transaction fees and consistency were cited as reasons for picking that chain.

Avalanche. (Unsplash)

Finance

State Street Works on Tokenized Bond and Money Market Fund; No 'Current Plans' for Stablecoin Project

Tokenized collateral could have helped avoid the 2022 "liability-driven" crisis, said Donna Milrod, chief product officer, in an interview with Financial News.

State Street building in London (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: APT Drops 2.4%, Leading Index Lower

Chainlink was also among the underperformers, falling 2.1%.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-10-09: laggards

Markets

Solana Is 'Richly Valued' Versus Ether, but Could Still Outperform If Trump Gets Elected: Standard Chartered

The bank's analysts remained bullish on bitcoin and crypto in general no matter who wins the presidency in November.

Price rising charts markets indices (Unsplash)

Markets

Crypto Investors Mostly DCA Into Their Coins, Finds Kraken

Dollar-cost averaging can help remove emotion from decisions and focus on long-term outlook, a Kraken executive told CoinDesk.

(Unsplash)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 1.2%, With NEAR and RENDER Posting Biggest Declines

Aptos bucked the trend, rising 2.7% despite the broader index decline.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-10-08: laggards

Finance

RWA Issuer Midas Expands Tokenized Products to Retail Users with Regulatory Nod in Europe

Midas acquired regulatory approval to issue its basis trade and U.S. Treasuries tokens in Liechtenstein, allowing passporting across Germany and Europe.

(Ryan Quintal/Unsplash, Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

Bitcoin Price Up 40% YTD, but Gold Wins on Risk-Adjusted Returns

Gold has a significantly higher volatility ratio than bitcoin in 2024, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs.

Absolute YTD returns and return to volatility ratios for key assets, including BTC and ETH  (Goldman Sachs)

Markets

MicroStrategy Surges to 6-Month High as Bitcoin Wrestles With Key Moving Average

NEAR, UNI and APT led crypto gains, while bitcoin faded after pushing through $64,000 earlier in the day.

Bitcoin price on 10/07 (CoinDesk)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: UNI Surges 7.9% as Index Rises

NEAR joined Uniswap as a top performer, gaining 5.0%.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-10-07: Leaders