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


Tech

Circle Upgrades Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol Promising Near-Instant USDC Settlements

CCTP V2 enables nearly instant USDC transfers between blockchains with new feature, reducing blockchain transaction times from minutes to seconds.

A CCTP demo at Circle’s Consensus 2023 booth in Austin, Texas (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Markets

Ether's Freefall Below $1.9K Roils DeFi, Jeopardizes Crypto Loan Backed by $130M in ETH

Falling ETH prices also threaten other DeFi loans, with potential liquidations that could further impact the token's price.

Storm clouds gather. (Shutterstock)

Policy

El Salvador Signs Crypto Regulation Agreement With Paraguay

El Salvador had previously entered an agreement with Argentina.

Juan Carlos Reyes of the National Commission of Digital Assets in El Salvador (CNAD)

Markets

No Bottom in Sight as Bitcoin Funding Rate Swings

Bitcoin perpetual funding rates turned slightly negative, reaching an annualized rate of -2%.

BTC: Futures Perpetual Funding Rate (Glassnode)

Markets

Coinbase to Launch 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum Futures Trading in the U.S.

The exchange is also working on launching perpetual-style futures in the U.S. with long-dated expirations.

Coinbase app opening screen on mobile phone (appshunter.io/Unsplash)

Policy

Thailand Regulator Adds USDC, USDT Stablecoins to Approved Cryptocurrencies

Previously, only bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), XRP, stellar (XLM) and certain tokens used in the Bank of Thailand’s settlement system were approved.

Bangkok, Thailand (Noom HH/Getty Images)

Markets

Strategy Comes Off the Sidelines With $21B Preferred Stock ATM Offering

A fresh round of purchases of bitcoin would bring the company's holdings above 500,000 tokens.

FastNews (CoinDesk)

Markets

Sunday Blues for Bitcoin as It Tumbles Back to $80K

President Trump acknowledged that some of his policies will cause pain in the short term.

Crypto plunges in quick fashion (Unsplash)

Markets

Coinbase a Buying Opportunity After Three-Week 30% Plunge: Rosenblatt

Analyst Chris Brendler sees 45% upside in shares of the crypto exchange.

Coinbase app opening screen on mobile phone (appshunter.io/Unsplash)

Finance

MtnDAO's Experimental Crypto Investment Fund Will 'Outperform VCs' Claims Founder

MtnDAO is launching a token and a futarchy-powered investment fund to boot.

mtnDAO host Barrett (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)