Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views and opinions presented are his own and may not reflect those of Decrypt. Additionally, check out our new daily news show that summarizes the top stories in just 5 minutes, available on Apple Pod or Spotify.
Good morning!
Here are the main highlights of the day:
- Major cryptocurrencies drop by 2-4% ahead of the CPI report, with Bitcoin priced at $61.6k
- Claude unveils Mythos (Fable 5), but its cybersecurity functionalities have been largely diminished
- Morpho secures $175 million in funding, supported by a16z and Paradigm, for institutional integrations
- Proposals for crypto tax legislation have stalled in the House, making a vote unlikely in the near term
- Kalshi Perps surpasses $1 billion in trading volume in its inaugural week
🌍 Crypto Markets Decline Amid Geopolitical Tensions and Mythos Launch
Two significant macro developments on Tuesday influenced both crypto and the broader financial markets.
A US Army Apache helicopter crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump attributing the incident to Iran, stating that the US must retaliate. Reports from AP and CBC indicate that the military has already initiated counterstrikes. The crash occurred shortly after Trump facilitated a renewed ceasefire between Iran and Israel and amid ongoing discussions between the US and Iran. Axios reports that the prevailing theory suggests the involvement of an Iranian drone, although its intentions remain unclear. The US has commenced retaliatory "defensive" actions.
Later that day, Anthropic released Claude Fable 5, the public version of its Mythos model, which had been kept under tight security since April. The model achieved a 78% score on a vulnerability-discovery benchmark and is designed to identify software bugs, raising concerns in a market still reeling from recent hacks. Requests related to cybersecurity, biology, or chemistry are redirected to the older Opus 4.8 version, which Anthropic claims activates in less than 5% of interactions. The unrestricted Mythos 5 is available only to vetted firms.
While crypto markets did not initially react strongly to these events, they did experience a sell-off overnight in anticipation of this morning's CPI report, which many expect will show inflationary pressures. The lack of concern regarding the Iran situation is consistent with recent market behavior. However, the Mythos launch was anticipated to generate more excitement. Reports that it does not review smart contracts and often redirects users back to Opus 4.8 may render the much-hyped Mythos release less impactful for the crypto space. The CPI results will soon provide clarity on market expectations...
⚖️ Crypto Tax Bills Stalled in the House
The House Ways and Means hearing intended to advance crypto tax reform instead revealed significant divisions.
The committee discussed seven draft proposals, each addressing different aspects of the tax code. Key proposals include:
- a de minimis exemption to exempt small everyday transactions, including network fees for up to 5,000 transactions annually, each under $10;
- an adjustment to prevent double taxation on mining and staking rewards, taxing them only upon sale rather than at the time of receipt;
- extending wash-sale rules to crypto to close the loophole that allows traders to harvest losses and repurchase immediately;
- eliminating the costly appraisal requirement for crypto charitable donations over $5,000.
Additional proposals address stablecoin transactions and integrating digital assets into existing securities tax treatments.
However, political disagreements emerged. Pro-crypto Democrats raised concerns about the staking and mining exemptions, while party leadership suggested delaying the entire package until after the midterm elections. For an industry that has achieved notable legislative successes recently, this highlights the complexities involved in tax reform. The proposed bills are still in play, but their timeline for progress has extended...
💸 Morpho Raises $175M to Enhance Onchain Credit Markets
Lending protocol Morpho completed a $175 million funding round co-led by a16z crypto, Paradigm, and Ribbit Capital, with support from various strategic investors including Apollo, VanEck, Circle Ventures, Ledger, SBI Group, and Bpifrance from France.
This funding round values Morpho at up to $2 billion, marking one of the largest ever in the DeFi sector.
The Morpho protocol operates an open credit network, allowing banks, fintech companies, and asset managers to create their own lending markets onchain, tailored to specific risk profiles, without starting from scratch. Currently, it manages over $11 billion in deposits and counts Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Galaxy, Bitwise, and Anchorage among its users. Co-founder Paul Frambot, who initiated the project in Paris at age 20, originally built it on Aave and now promotes it as a platform for anyone to create their own version of Aave.
The newly acquired funds will be directed towards technical development and deeper integration with institutional clients, aiming to establish Morpho as the primary credit layer as more financial activities transition to blockchain technology.
The message is clear—the demand for institutional crypto solutions remains robust...
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
- Major cryptocurrencies are down ahead of the CPI report; BTC -1.4% at $61.6k; ETH -2% at $1,640; SOL -3% at $64.40; HYPE -10% at $56
- WBT (+14%), Stable (+12%), and WLFI (+8%) were the top gainers
- Oil remains steady at $89; Gold down 2% at $4,180
- Stock futures are in the red as semiconductor stocks drop, with DOW down 1% and Nasdaq down 1.5%
- Gold and Silver have lost their year-to-date gains following recent declines
- The CME Group has launched its CME Crypto Index Futures, tracking the prices of BTC, ETH, and SOL
- Wintermute attributed the recent crypto sell-off not to Saylor’s selling but to institutional outflows, noting no signs of capital returning
- Humanity Protocol lost $36 million after an employee's laptop containing multisig keys was compromised; attackers gained 3 out of 6 keys on Ethereum and 3 out of 5 on BSC, draining 141.2 million H and minting an additional 200 million
- Kraken has been named the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter for the FIFA World Cup 2026, starting June 11
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
- Bitcoin ETFs suffered $77 million in net outflows on Tuesday, while ETH ETFs saw $41 million in outflows
- The HYPE ETFs recorded no net inflows on Tuesday
Meme Coin Tracker
- Meme leaders experienced declines; DOGE -2%, SHIB steady, PEPE -2%, PENGU -1%, TRUMP -1%, BONK -2%, SPX steady, FARTCOIN -5%
- Jotchua (+32%), PXR (+150%), and Buttcoin (+25%) led the movers on Solana
- Base movers included B3(+23%), LFI (+20%), and OS (+40%)
📈 Market Overview of the Day
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
- Kalshi Perps exceeded $1 billion in trading volume within its first week of operation
- Inference startup SERV claims its optimization layer allows open models like DeepSeek-V4-Flash and NVIDIA Nemotron to match or surpass Anthropic's newly launched Claude Fable 5 at up to 90 times lower cost, presenting it as a solution for affordable enterprise AI
🚚 NFT Developments
- NFT leaders showed slight declines; Punks steady at 32.7 ETH, BAYC down 1% at 9.1 ETH, Pudgy down 2% at 4.4 ETH; Hypurr remains steady at 272 HYPE
- NPC (+37%) and Normies (+34%) were notable top gainers
- Meebits launched Futbol collectibles alongside a dedicated Futbol Trading Desk channel on Discord