Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views and analyses presented here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Additionally, check out our new daily news show which covers the top stories in just 5 minutes, available on Apple Pod and Spotify.
Good morning!
Here are today’s key updates:
- Major cryptocurrencies decline 3-7% as stocks experience a downturn; BTC priced at $62.3k
- Saylor secures $300M in cash; MSTR sees a 5% drop
- Fomo app successfully raised $75M at a $550M valuation while diversifying into an all-in-one app
- Bitmine, Sharplink, and others collaborate on a new R&D initiative called ETHLabs
- Trump has signed executive orders to speed up the U.S. quantum development
📈 Fomo Secures $75M at a $550M Valuation as Major VCs Invest in Consumer Crypto
A consumer-focused cryptocurrency trading application has successfully raised $75 million from investors typically hesitant to enter the crypto space.
Fomo, a social-centric cryptocurrency trading platform, has completed a $75 million Series B funding round led by Index Ventures, achieving a valuation of $550 million. Union Square Ventures participated, along with existing investor Benchmark and angel investors including Zynga’s Mark Pincus, Discord CEO Humam Sakhnini, and Eventbrite’s Kevin Hartz. Founded in 2025 by three former dYdX employees—Paul Erlanger, Se Yong Park, and Prashan Dharmasena—Fomo aims to make on-chain trading accessible like a typical consumer app: it features non-custodial services, approximately 30-second onboarding, social functionalities like leaderboards and copy trading, and offers access to a wider array of assets than Coinbase across various chains, all without the need for wallet management, bridges, or gas fees. Since its launch in May 2025, Fomo has attracted over 625,000 users and facilitated $4 billion in trading volume, adding around 3,500 users daily, all managed by a 17-member team. This funding round brings their total raised to about $94 million.
Julia Andre, a partner at Index, noted that the firm perceives a significant market shift in consumer blockchain trading and recognizes a capable team to capitalize on it, stating, "we’re not investing in Fomo just because it’s a crypto business." Co-founder Paul Erlanger was candid about the challenges they are addressing, claiming, "On-chain trading is just impossible." His vision is for Fomo to be perceived as a non-crypto app, similar to the paths taken by Coinbase and Robinhood.
The profile of the investors involved is noteworthy. Index is known for its investments in Figma and Scale AI, while Union Square Ventures has historically avoided crypto. The involvement of established, non-crypto VCs in a substantial fundraising effort for a crypto startup during a challenging market signals a strong belief that the next generation of users will come from a streamlined consumer application rather than a cumbersome exchange. Additionally, the timing aligns as retail interest and trading volumes are rising with Bitcoin stabilizing around $64,000.
Moreover, Fomo’s aspirations extend beyond cryptocurrencies. It introduced perpetual contracts in June and intends to serve as the front end for equities, derivatives, and prediction markets transitioning on-chain, positioning itself directly against Coinbase’s “everything app” and Robinhood. Co-founder Se mentioned plans for acquisitions and expanding the engineering team with the new capital, indicating they now possess the resources to realize these ambitions.
₿ Strategy Raises $300M in Cash and Acquires Just 520 BTC
Strategy liquidated $335.5 million worth of MSTR stock last week but allocated only a small portion toward Bitcoin, purchasing merely 520 BTC (around $35 million) at an average price of $67,068, increasing its total to 847,363 coins. The remaining funds were directed to cash reserves.
This move raised Strategy's USD reserves by approximately $300 million to reach $1.4 billion, aimed at bolstering the credit quality of its preferred shares and to cover dividends and debt obligations.
Some analysts view this as a strategy to mitigate issues related to STRC. Saylor’s preferred stock, which generates dividends and has been a key source of funding for Bitcoin purchases, fell to a historic low of $83 last week before recovering slightly, causing a broader market downturn and affecting Bitcoin sentiment. By raising common equity and accumulating cash instead of increasing its Bitcoin holdings, Strategy is indicating that securing its balance sheet currently takes precedence over acquiring more coins.
The CEO of Strategy even purchased $1 million worth of STRC to demonstrate confidence in the stock’s recovery, suggesting he will hold it until it returns to par value, amid skepticism regarding the sustainability of the model during an extended bear market.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Saylor and his team are committed to safeguarding STRC and Bitcoin, which may entail prioritizing MSTR (which saw a 3% decline on Monday while IBIT rose by 2.5%). Concerns about Saylor's potential downfall may be overstated, but MSTR shareholders should brace for more short-term difficulties.
🔬 BitMine, SharpLink, and Joe Lubin Fund New Ethereum Research Lab
The two largest corporate holders of Ethereum have invested in research for the Ethereum ecosystem itself.
BitMine, SharpLink, and Joe Lubin are the main supporters of ETHLabs, a new independent nonprofit research and development laboratory staffed by five former researchers from the Ethereum Foundation.
ETHLabs aims to position Ethereum as the global economy's settlement layer, with its initial focus on institutional needs: faster settlements, native issuance, cross-chain transactions, increased mainnet capacity, and research on ETH’s monetary properties. Beyond the three primary funders, community supporters include Uniswap’s Hayden Adams, Base’s Jesse Pollak, and researchers Justin Drake, Danny Ryan, and Tim Beiko.
Since BitMine and SharpLink hold the largest ETH reserves, they are now financing research intended to enhance ETH’s value. Tom Lee articulated this in terms of institutional and AI-driven adoption, emphasizing the ecosystem's need for additional talent and research. ETHLabs explicitly targets value accrual and the tangible traction of DeFi, addressing concerns that the Foundation has undervalued these areas in pursuit of credible neutrality. To maintain transparency, ETHLabs channels all funding through an independent grants administrator, ensuring a separation between the researchers and the treasury financing the initiative.
This development comes amidst a talent drain from the Ethereum Foundation and an intensifying debate over the future direction of Ethereum and how ETH will retain value. ETHLabs is being promoted as a complementary entity to the Foundation rather than a splinter group, envisioned as two interdependent components, merging idealism with pragmatism. The strategy is straightforward: align the institutions that possess the most ETH with the researchers capable of enhancing its value, while an independent administrator ensures accountability.
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
- Major cryptocurrencies are experiencing significant declines this morning alongside stock markets; BTC -3% at $62.3k; ETH -6% at $1,660; SOL -7% at $69.10; HYPE -7% at $63
- DEXE (+35%), HASH (+15%), and RAIN (+9%) are the top gainers
- Oil -3% at $73.80; Gold -1.5% at $4,140
- Stock futures are down significantly as major tech shares decline; DOW -0.5%, Nasdaq -2.75%
- The U.S. Senate passed a housing bill that includes a four-year prohibition on a Federal CBDC, viewed as a victory for crypto proponents opposed to a government-issued digital dollar due to surveillance concerns
- OKX and the NYSE have formed a collaborative venture led by Andrew Cuomo to connect traditional and cryptocurrency markets, aiming to provide OKX’s 120 million users with access to ICE futures and tokenized equities on the NYSE
- Trump has enacted two executive orders to hasten U.S. quantum computing and the transition to quantum-resistant encryption ahead of “Q-Day,” highlighting the potential long-term risk quantum computing poses to Bitcoin’s security
- MoneyGram has become a validator for Solana, reinforcing its efforts toward stablecoin payments by contributing to the security of the network it is increasingly leveraging
- Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back has made a prediction that Bitcoin will reach between $500k and $1M by 2028, believing its market capitalization will ultimately rival that of gold
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
- Bitcoin ETFs experienced $68M in net outflows on Monday; Ethereum ETFs saw $66M in outflows
- The HYPE ETFs did not record any net inflows on Monday
- BitMine invested $92 million in ETH as chairman Tom Lee reiterated his confidence in an impending “crypto spring”
Meme Coin Tracker
- Meme coin leaders are mostly down; DOGE -6%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -5%, PENGU -7%, TRUMP -8%, BONK -6%
- FARM (+75%) and GTA6 (+240%) topped the gainers on Solana
- Movers on Base included PRVXT (+60%) and SYND (+60%)
📈 Myriad Market of the Day
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
- A Wall Street Journal investigation discovered that $1.9 million in bets on Polymarket were fabricated, with none of the bets shown in over 1,100 creator videos actually being placed
- The founder of Bittensor acknowledged that the protocol remains centralized, with a small leadership group directing core development to expedite AI advancements, while asserting that ownership and the ecosystem are already decentralized, with full protocol decentralization aimed for within 18 months
🚚 NFT Market Update
- NFT leaders mostly saw declines; Punks -1.5% at 30.5 ETH, BAYC -1% at 9.18 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 4.65 ETH; Hypurr’s -6% at 213 HYPE
- Cow’s (+56%), NPC (+22%) and Cyberkongz (+14%) were the top gainers