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

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss Each Contributed $250,000 to New Trump-Aligned Super PAC

America PAC has raised $8.75 million this quarter from a handful of tech and venture capital executives.

Donald J. Trump at a rally (Gerd Altmann, modified by CoinDesk)

Policy

Trump Campaign's Crypto Donations Amounted to $3M of $331M Raised Last Quarter: WSJ

Roughly 100 people contributed crypto the campaign, including high-profile industry players like the Winklevoss twins and Kraken's Jesse Powell.

BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA - JULY 13: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter is dead after injuring former U.S. President Donald Trump, killing one audience member and injuring another in the shooting. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Markets

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: NEAR and XRP Lead as Index Posts Modest Gain

NEAR's 7.8% advance and XRP's 2.2% rise buoyed the CoinDesk 20 Index in overnight trading.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2024-07-16 - leaders

Finance

BlackRock’s Larry Fink: Bitcoin Is ‘Legitimate Financial Instrument'

The company's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) added roughly $4 billion in assets in the second quarter.

Larry Fink reiterated  that bitcoin is a legitimate financial asset (Sean Gallup/Getty images)

Markets

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Broad-Based Gains Push Index Up 8.2%

ICP led today's gains in the CoinDesk 20 Index with a 26.1% rise.

CoinDesk 20 leaders (CoinDesk Indices)

Policy

Conduct Versus Code May Be the Defining Question in Roman Storm Prosecution

Prosecutors and Roman Storm's attorneys met in court Friday to argue over motions to dismiss the charges against the developer and address evidentiary questions.

Tornado Cash's Roman Storm, second from left, and his legal team – Brian Klein (left), Keri Axel and Kevin Casey – outside court in New York. (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Markets

Fed Might Focus on Weakening Labor Market Rather Than Inflation as It Mulls Rate Cuts: Economists

Thursday’s CPI report showed that prices declined on a monthly basis for the first time since March 2020, spurring hope that the Fed will finally cut rates.

A weakening labor market could persuade the Fed to cut rates even as inflation is not yet back to the Fed's 2% goal. (Anchalee Phanmaha/Getty Images)

Finance

MakerDAO's $1B Tokenized Treasury Investment Plan Draws Interest from BlackRock's BUIDL, Ondo, Superstate

MakerDAO's competition to allocate funds will open next month, and would give a big boost for the $1.8 billion tokenized real-world asset space.

(Ryan Quintal/Unsplash, Modified by CoinDesk)

Markets

CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: XRP Gains Amid Overall Index Decline

Cardano's ADA joined XRP as the only other index constituent to post an advance.

CoinDesk 20 leaders (CoinDesk Indices)

Finance

Morgan Creek Digital to Raise up to $500M for New Web3 Venture Capital Fund

The new fund will target early stage opportunities in AI, blockchain technology, chips and data.

Morgan Creek Digital to raise up to $500M for new Web3 venture capital fund. (Jason Leung/Unsplash)