Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent Decrypt's opinions.
Good morning!
Here are today’s key updates:
- Major cryptocurrencies have dipped slightly, with BTC priced at $64.4k, down 1%.
- Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) experienced outflows, ending a five-day streak of inflows.
- Standard Chartered has set a $200 price target for LINK, citing expected growth in tokenized assets.
- Pump Fun has achieved a new local high, generating $10M in weekly fees following its social trading launch.
- Two new projects have launched in the FWA ecosystem, contributing to a local high for its token.
₿ Saylor's Strategy Continues Bitcoin Sales, Increases Cash Reserves
Last week, Strategy sold 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million, as detailed in an 8-K filing on Monday. This reduced its holdings from 842,138 coins to 840,447 coins.
The Bitcoin was sold at an average price of $64,262, which is about $11,100 lower than its cost basis of $75,385, indicating that Michael Saylor's firm is once again selling Bitcoin at a loss. The company has not made any purchases since June and is now down 6,916 coins from its peak in that month. Proceeds from the Bitcoin sales have been allocated for repurchasing its preferred stock, STRC, which has rebounded to $95.
In a separate action, Strategy sold $653.1 million worth of MSTR common stock, more than double the amount from the previous week. The company now has $4.65 billion in cash reserves, an increase from $4 billion. This reserve is said to cover approximately 2.7 years of “USD Duration,” allowing it to meet its annual preferred dividends and debt interest of $1.76 billion without needing to sell any more coins or issue additional shares.
We aim to make $STRC the iPhone of Digital Assets. https://t.co/tiCW0qpa18
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 10, 2026
Notably, MSTR stock has remained resilient despite ongoing dilution and Bitcoin sales. Since July 1, Strategy has sold approximately $1.9 billion in common stock without purchasing any Bitcoin. Typically, such actions would negatively impact the share price, yet MSTR saw a low of $81.81 in late June but has since stabilized and is now up 20% from that low, hovering around $100 per share.
Currently, Saylor and Strategy appear to be in a stronger position than they have been in months, with $4.65 billion in cash, STRC approaching par value, and MSTR showing stability. There seems to be little risk of a significant downturn, and it looks like they will continue to sell Bitcoin until STRC is back to par, at which point the strategy may shift from being a burden to a benefit.
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
- Major cryptocurrencies are mostly down, with HYPE leading; BTC -1% at $64.4k; ETH -1% at $1,893; SOL -1% at $76; HYPE +2% at $55.25
- Top altcoin movers include CRV (+9%), LIT (+9%), LINK (+5%), and MNT (+4%)
- Oil +4% at $82; Gold +1% at $4,450
- Stock futures are slightly positive; DOW +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.5%
- BlackRock has reduced the BTC to IBIT in-kind conversion threshold to $1M from $25M, easing the conversion process for spot holders to ETF holdings.
- Vitalik Buterin stated that Ethereum is betting its future on quantum security and AI, revealing an updated "Strawmap" that focuses on post-quantum cryptography, privacy, and AI-assisted formal verification, arguing that modern AI tools are essential for verifying the protocol's safety.
- Standard Chartered has set a $200 price target for Chainlink by 2030, anticipating a 25-fold increase from its current price of around $8, driven by the growth of tokenized assets to $4 trillion by 2028 and a 37-fold increase in DeFi, which will significantly raise Chainlink's fees given its current security of over $110 billion and coverage of about 70% of oracle-dependent DeFi value.
- Tether’s USDT supply has decreased by $4B over the past two months.
- Coinbase has launched UK derivatives trading with up to 50x leverage, introducing perpetual futures to eligible retail traders in Britain.
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
- Bitcoin ETFs experienced $145M in net outflows on Monday, ending a five-day inflow streak; ETH ETFs saw $15M in outflows.
- Tom Lee's BitMine acquired $14 million in Ethereum last week, adding 7,391 ETH to reach a total of 5.8 million tokens.
Meme Coin Tracker
- Meme leaders showed mixed results; DOGE +1%, SHIB -4%, PEPE unchanged, PENGU -2%, TRUMP +1%, BONK -5%
- Tokens from the Robinhood chain rose another 10-20%; Cashcat +10% to $163M, Stonkbroker +14% to $55M, and HMM +25% to $9M; UP surged +400% to $6M, claiming the top mover title.
- Solana tokens included TOAD (+20%), Alon (+200%), and Manlet (+20x); Stonk also increased by 33% to $11M and briefly reached a new all-time high of $15M.
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
- Pump.fun achieved $10.03 million in weekly fees and burned an additional $5.02 million of $PUMP, surpassing Hyperliquid in 30-day revenue as ecosystem volume rose to $2.97 billion, marking its best week since January.
- Fomo App introduced clans, enabling users to trade in groups of up to 50.
- Stonkfun has integrated with the Fomo App, allowing users to see if tokens were initiated via the Stonkfun launchpad.
🚚 NFT Updates
- NFT leaders remained largely stable; Punks -1% at 32 ETH, BAYC +2% at 8.17 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 3.92 ETH; Stonkbrokers increased by 3% to 13.4 ETH.
- Cash Cats (+27%) and Monkeyhood (+58%) were the top gainers.
- The FWA ecosystem welcomed two new projects, including one that enables grouped purchases (spins) in MegaRip and another by 0xQuit that allows for pooling deposits (NFTs and ETH) in FWAPHouse (FWA valued at $29M).
- Stonkbrokers announced a partnership with veDex UP, which will support The Stonk Exchange and the Stonk Launcher (UP +400% to $6M).