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

Latin American E-Commerce Giant Mercado Libre Launches U.S. Dollar-Tied Stablecoin

Customers of Mercado Libre digital bank subsidiary Mercado Pago will be able to buy and sell Meli Dollar with their Brazilian reais balances.

A Mercado Libre distribution centre. (Ministry of Economy, Government of Chile)

Markets

Bitcoin Gets Brief Boost After U.S. Employment Growth Revised Lower

Job growth for the 12-months ending in March 2024 was 818,000 lower than previously reported, according to a government report.

(Unsplash)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Trades Down Despite Gains from MATIC and UNI

The tokens of Polygon and Uniswap gain ground as Litecoin and others drag the CoinDesk 20 index down by 0.3%.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-08-21: laggards

Finance

Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms to Buy Rival Stronghold Digital for $175M in Stock, Debt

The deal comes weeks after Riot Platforms dropped a bid to buy Bitfarms, choosing to try and overhaul the company's board before pursuing a takoever again.

Stronghold Digital Mining CEO Greg Beard (right) and Co-Chairman Bill Spence (left).  (Stronghold Digital Mining)

Policy

Crypto-backed Candidate Ansari Narrowly Wins Arizona Primary by 39 Votes

The industry's top campaign-finance operation poured about $1.4 million into advertising to help secure Ansari's victory in a U.S. House primary, which was finalized in a recount this week.

Yassamin Ansari, a crypto-friendly Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona, held on to a 39-vote lead after a recount. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Finance

Second Solana ETF Approved in Brazil

The product will be launched by Brazil-based asset manager Hashdex in partnership with local investment bank BTG Pactual.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Raphael Nogueira/Unsplash)

CoinDesk Indices

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: AVAX and NEAR Lead as Index Gains 2.2%

Avalanche surged 6% and NEAR posted a 4.6% increase as all but one asset recorded gains.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-08-20: leaders

Tech

Dark Pools Dominate Ethereum as Private Transactions Surge – at Least by One Measure

More transactions on the blockchain are getting routed privately as users try to avoid front-running bots that eat into trading margins, but network observers worry about a loss of transparency – and potentially a trend toward centralization.

More Ethereum transactions are going private, getting sent directly to validators in a so-called "dark pool" arrangement (Hubert Robert/Metropolitan Museum of Art, modified by CoinDesk using Photomosh)

Policy

Solana's Former Top Decentralized Crypto Exchange Faces SEC Securities Violations

Mango Markets' governing body is looking to offer a settlement to the SEC.

(Desirae Hayes-Vitor/Unsplash)

Policy

Australian Securities Regulator Nabbed More Than 600 Crypto Investment Scams in a Year

The hustles amounted to about 9% of the total fraudulent platforms taken down in the first year of an investment scam disruption program.

Sydney harbor. (Dan Freeman/Unsplash)