Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views and insights shared are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Additionally, don’t miss our new daily news show that summarizes the top stories in just 5 minutes, available on Apple Pod and Spotify.

Good morning!

Here are the leading stories today:

  • Major cryptocurrencies are on the rise, with HYPE taking the lead; BTC trading at $66.4k
  • HYPE achieves a new all-time high of $76.50 following significant after-market activity from SPCX, which recorded $1.1B in trading volume
  • Ventuals has ceased operations on Hyperliquid, discontinuing the Anthropic and OpenAI perpetual contracts
  • Saylor invests an additional $100M in BTC, while also increasing his cash reserves by $100M during the second week of his 50/50 strategy
  • Centralized exchange (CEX) trading volumes have fallen to a two-year low, while decentralized exchange (DEX) and perpetual contract volumes have surged

🚀 HYPE Surges to New Record with SpaceX Activity Boosting Hyperliquid

The HYPE token on Hyperliquid has reached a new peak of $76.50, marking a 12% increase today.

SpaceX appears to be the catalyst for this surge. With the Nasdaq closed, the after-hours trading for this year's largest IPO has been taking place on Hyperliquid’s SPCX perpetual, which saw around $1.1 billion in trading volume and increased approximately 23% to about $209 (reaching as high as $230 last night). This made the tokenized SpaceX contract the third-largest market on the platform, trailing only Bitcoin and Ether, outpacing Solana and even HYPE itself.

Demand for HYPE extends beyond the blockchain as well, with HYPE ETFs trading around $17 million, marking their second-best trading day ever, indicating that traditional finance is also seeking exposure. As pre-IPO and real-world asset perpetuals draw activity onto the blockchain, Hyperliquid is capitalizing on this trend, and HYPE is emerging as the preferred method to engage with that flow. The market is responding accordingly, adjusting HYPE's valuation in real-time…

₿ Strategy Accumulates More Bitcoin While Increasing Cash Reserves

Strategy acquired an additional 1,587 BTC for approximately $100 million last week at an average price of $63,024. Concurrently, it raised its cash reserves by $100 million, bringing the total to $1.1 billion, marking the second consecutive week of replenishing this financial cushion. These actions were financed by selling around $209 million of MSTR stock through its at-the-market program.

This shift in strategy is noteworthy. The reserve is intended to cover dividends on Strategy’s preferred shares and interest on its debt (~$1.7B due in the next year), and Saylor is rebuilding it after unexpectedly using $900M last month to settle 2029 convertible debt. JPMorgan highlighted that the reserve only covered about six months of dividends, indicating the need for Saylor to restore it to reassure stakeholders. Thus, he is now simultaneously acquiring Bitcoin and increasing cash reserves, funded by selling MSTR shares. MSTR shareholders appear unfazed, with the stock rising 6% on Monday.

Historically, Saylor's strategy has been straightforward—raise funds and purchase Bitcoin. The current approach is more cautious, balancing Bitcoin acquisitions while also boosting cash reserves to handle escalating debt obligations. The positive aspect is that he continues to excel at raising capital. However, the downside is that the debt is likely to grow over time, especially as he sells more STRC (his new tool for acquiring more BTC). This will require careful management in the future. Nevertheless, Saylor appears to be handling this balance effectively, and these recent cash raises should alleviate market concerns over his previous decisions (selling BTC and paying off the 2029 debt). This latest round of Saylor-related speculation could potentially indicate a market bottom once again…

🤖 Ventuals Discontinues Anthropic and OpenAI Markets as It Shuts Down

Ventuals, a team that developed real-world asset perpetuals on Hyperliquid, is closing its markets and merging into another project within the ecosystem.

This decision ends the OpenAI and Anthropic perpetual contracts, which allowed traders to speculate on the valuations of these two leading private AI firms. The contracts have been halted and settled on Hyperliquid.

However, Ventuals is not entirely abandoning the space, as it is consolidating into another team, suggesting the potential for a future endeavor. Alternatively, TradeXYZ, the leading market for RWA perps on Hyperliquid, might revive these markets. If not, this could be a significant setback for Hyperliquid's pre-IPO strategy.

With SPCX generating billions in volume and gaining national (and even global) attention on Hyperliquid, it seems likely that a solution to reinstate these pre-IPO markets will be found swiftly.

📉 Exchange Volumes Decline to Multi-Year Low as RWA Perpetuals Reach New Heights

Overall crypto exchange volume (CEX volume) decreased by 3.45% in May to $4.41 trillion, the lowest level since September 2024 and marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline, according to CoinDesk Data.

Spot trading volumes experienced the most significant drop, falling to $963 billion, the weakest performance since October 2023. This decline reflects the broader downturn in the crypto market and the reality that AI stocks have been capturing investor interest away from cryptocurrencies. However, other factors are influencing the situation as well.

Real-world asset perpetuals, which are contracts linked to tokenized stocks and private companies (such as the SpaceX pre-IPO), rose by 10.4% to a record $211 billion, while DEX futures increased for the first time in seven months. Therefore, even as traders have moved away from spot trading, RWA perps and DEX volumes have increased. Capital remains present; it’s just being traded in a different manner than before.

The implications for the crypto market are multifaceted. Firstly, the growing interest in RWAs and stocks diverts attention from crypto tokens, as evidenced by the changes in price and trading volumes. The silver lining is that with this capital on-chain, it can easily rotate back into crypto when that market heats up again. Another significant factor is the shift from spot trading to perpetual contracts and its impact on token trading dynamics. This was highlighted by the recent ZEC exploit and its 60% drop just two weeks ago. When ZEC plummeted, several other recent altcoins also suffered declines, despite not being directly correlated. However, they were tied to a group of traders on Hyperliquid who had just incurred losses from the ZEC trade, prompting them to engage in broader risk reduction. This suggests that we may witness more synchronized movements among "hot altcoins" and other consensus trades. There are several additional impacts that will likely unfold over time, warranting close observation…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

  • Major cryptocurrencies are experiencing gains, with HYPE leading the charge; BTC stable at $66.4k; ETH up 2% at $1,796; SOL up 3% at $74.50; HYPE up 11% at $75.10
  • JTO (+33%), XLM (+12%), UNI (+12%), and AERO (+13%) are among the top performers; WLD up 6% as well
  • Oil down 3% at $78; Gold remains steady at $4,368
  • Stock futures show little movement following a strong Monday, although SPCX is up 10% in premarket trading
  • HYPE surged 12% overnight, reaching a new all-time high of $76.50 due to SPCX's performance, which exceeded $1B in daily volume and experienced price discovery last night
  • Standard Chartered has initiated coverage on Uniswap, targeting a price of $100 for UNI by 2030, suggesting a potential 40x upside, as they predict the DEX will play a central role in Wall Street’s on-chain activities
  • Kraken has launched crypto perpetual futures for US traders, bringing a product previously limited to offshore platforms to American customers
  • Crypto users pledged $560 million for tokenized SpaceX shares but did not receive any allocation as the platform could not secure the underlying stock.

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

📈 Myriad Market of the Day

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

  • NFT leaders showed varied performance with ETH rising 10%; Punks down 2% at 32.7 ETH, BAYC up 1% at 9.18 ETH, Pudgy up 1% at 4.75 ETH; Hypurr’s down 3% at 265 HYPE
  • Metavixens (+50%) and Axie (+33%) were the top gainers
  • Pudgy Penguins shut down Pudgy Party, its mobile battle royale game, less than a year post-launch, as the team shifts focus to its Pudgy World experience

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