Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views and analysis presented are his own and do not necessarily represent those of Decrypt. Additionally, check out our new daily news show that summarizes the leading stories in just 5 minutes, available on Apple Pod or Spotify.
Good morning!
Key highlights today include:
- Major cryptocurrencies are performing well, with SOL surging 10%; BTC has risen 5% to $61.3k
- Venice AI secures $65M in funding at a $1B valuation, marking its entry as a new unicorn in the crypto space
- Robinhood introduces Robinhood Chain focusing on tokenized stocks, along with Lighter perps
- Lighter’s LIT token experiences a 15% increase, reaching new local highs post-Robinhood launch
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire comments on OUSD, critiquing the track record of consortium stablecoins
🏦 Robinhood Launches ‘AI-Native’ Ethereum Layer-2 Featuring Tokenized Stocks
Robinhood unveiled the public mainnet of Robinhood Chain, which is built on the Arbitrum framework as an Ethereum layer-2 solution. The firm promotes this new chain as “AI-native,” designed to facilitate trading by AI agents on the blockchain directly.
The network launched with integrations from BitGo and Chainlink, as well as collaborations with Uniswap and Pleiades for market-making. It aims to connect Robinhood's traditional brokerage services with its cryptocurrency offerings.
The main feature includes Stock Tokens, which are on-chain representations of shares from companies such as Nvidia and Apple. Users on Robinhood Chain can utilize these tokenized shares in lending pools and as collateral within DeFi, transforming stock holdings into on-chain capital, a capability that is not available within a conventional brokerage. Additionally, Robinhood has introduced perpetual trading directly in its wallet through the decentralized exchange Lighter and activated Robinhood Earn for qualifying US users, enabling them to lend the USDG stablecoin for approximately 7% APY.
Shares of HOOD closed up over 8% at $108.65, marking a nearly 20% increase this month, although they remain below their peak values. Meanwhile, Lighter’s LIT token rose 15% to $2.14, achieving fresh local highs following the integration.
💸 Venice AI Achieves $1 Billion Valuation as Voorhees Invests in Private AI
Erik Voorhees’ Venice AI, which emphasizes privacy, raised $65 million at a $1 billion valuation, marking its first external funding round and earning the status of a unicorn less than two years after its inception. The funding was led by crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and North Island Ventures.
Voorhees stated that this funding validates Venice’s goal of providing a private and uncensored alternative to mainstream AI platforms like ChatGPT. Venice allows users to access over 200 AI models across various domains, including text, image, video, and code, while ensuring no data is stored on its servers. User prompts are encrypted on the client side and routed through an external proxy.
With over 3 million users and handling 1.7 million API calls daily, Venice AI is already profitable with an annualized revenue of around $70 million, a notable achievement for an AI startup at this stage. The newly acquired funds will be used to purchase GPUs and develop its own data centers, thus reducing its dependency on leased computing resources and improving profit margins.
The VVV token rose 10% to $13.50, aligning its market capitalization with the company's valuation of $1 billion. The relationship between the VVV token and company equity is a topic for future discussion.
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
- Leading cryptocurrencies are performing well, with SOL in the lead; BTC +5% at $61.3k; ETH +5% at $1,650; SOL +10% at $82; HYPE +4% at $64.90
- BEAT (+20%), ZEC (+14%) and VVV (+11%) also saw gains
- Oil is down 1.5% at $67.50; Gold decreased by 0.3% to $4,070
- Stock futures are showing slight variability; DOW +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.4%
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire responded to the launch of Open USD, asserting that USDC's long-established liquidity and network advantages are not easily replicable and that consortium stablecoins have a "dismal" history
- A new Ethereum nonprofit aimed at institutions has been launched with support from Joe Lubin, BitMine, and SharpLink, marking the second initiative from this group in recent weeks
- Cantor Fitzgerald analysts anticipate a potential bottom in the crypto market in the upcoming months, highlighting the cycle and advising investors to concentrate on networks with enduring value
- Standard Chartered formed a partnership with Circle to provide their institutional clients access to USDC
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
- Bitcoin ETFs experienced $296M in net outflows on Wednesday, while ETH ETFs recorded $15M in inflows
- Trump-supported American Bitcoin plans to perform a reverse stock split to comply with Nasdaq requirements
- Forward Industries has acquired $38 million in Solana for its treasury after unsuccessful acquisition attempts, thereby increasing its SOL holdings.
Meme Coin Tracker
- Top meme coins showed positive performance; DOGE +4%, SHIB +2%, PEPE +7%, PENGU +5%, TRUMP steady, BONK +6%
- ANSEM (+24%), World (+200%) and Birb (+64%) were the leading gainers on Solana
- Notable movers on Base included SERV (+44%) and POD (+20%)
📈 Myriad Market of the Day
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
- World has introduced on-chain prediction markets to Solana’s Phantom wallet
- Aave witnessed a surge in new wallets, reaching a five-year peak, which is a positive indicator for the lending protocol as Kraken plans to invest
- The Solana Foundation has initiated on-chain governance with stake-weighted voting, introducing a new system known as Solana Governance Proposals that allows any validator with a minimum of 100,000 SOL delegated to submit a proposal
🚚 NFT Updates
- Performance of NFT leaders was mixed: Punks -1% at 31 ETH, BAYC +1% at 8.82 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.45 ETH; Hypurr’s -3% at 217 HYPE
- Top movers included Unlimited (+25%) and GHLFers (+7%)