Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The views and analyses expressed are his own and do not necessarily represent those of Decrypt.
Good morning!
Here are today's key headlines:
- Major cryptocurrencies and altcoins are experiencing significant losses; BTC is down 2.7% at $63,400; HYPE has dropped 9% to $54.
- Saylor has raised $525 million in cash, opting to purchase STRC instead of Bitcoin.
- Coinbase is enhancing its engagement with meme coins through a new feature called “Launches.”
- The Fomo app has achieved a new all-time high in weekly revenue and fees.
- FWA has expanded its platform to include wrapped ERC20s, starting with PNKSTR.
₿ Strategy Shifts Focus to Cash and STRC, Avoids Bitcoin Purchase
Strategy has now gone five consecutive weeks without acquiring Bitcoin, marking its longest abstention in two years. Instead, it has bolstered its cash reserves by $525 million, bringing the total to $3.75 billion. This amount is sufficient to cover 2.1 years of its $1.76 billion annual obligations in preferred dividends and debt interest.
To generate cash, the company liquidated 5.4 million MSTR shares via its at-the-market program between July 20 and 26, while its Bitcoin holdings remain unchanged at 843,775 BTC since its last purchase of 520 coins on June 22. Additionally, Strategy repurchased $25 million of its own STRC preferred stock, marking its first buyback under a $1 billion authorization approved by the board on June 29.
STRC has been trading below its $100 par value since mid-May, reaching record lows earlier this month. Consequently, Strategy is utilizing shareholder-funded cash to stabilize the preferred stock, which has been negatively impacting the entire structure. Saylor is now selling MSTR shares at an 80% discount from their all-time high to acquire STRC, which is currently 12% off its peg, instead of Bitcoin.
Shareholders of MSTR appear to be suffering as Saylor's strategy dilutes common stockholders through these sales to build cash reserves and repurchase preferred stock. Recently, the company even revised its metrics, introducing a “net Bitcoin per share” figure that excludes $22.2 billion in debt and preferred claims, redefining mNAV so that the stock now shows at 1.02x—right at the threshold below which issuing shares to acquire Bitcoin would actually decrease Bitcoin per share.
In terms of Strategy’s Bitcoin stack, it is currently $8.5 billion in the red against the $63.69 billion it spent. Earnings are set to be announced this Thursday, and Saylor is known for having unexpected strategies. More details about his plans and future moves may emerge later this week.
🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets
- Major cryptocurrencies are facing declines amid a selloff in memory stocks and a downturn in the South Korean market; BTC is down 3% at $63,400; ETH has dropped 4% to $1,875; SOL is down 4% at $73.1; HYPE is down 9% at $54.45.
- No significant movers noted.
- Oil has decreased by 2% to $81; Gold is down 1% at $4,030.
- Stock futures are mixed as memory stocks decline while others rise on strong earnings; DOW is up 0.7%, Nasdaq is down 0.9%.
- The US Senate has postponed the CLARITY Act for now, reallocating its limited pre-recess focus elsewhere, effectively confirming that the crypto market-structure bill will miss its August deadline despite extensive last-minute discussions.
- Circle acquired nearly 1,000 blockchain patents from IBM, a strategic move to strengthen its position amid increasing competition in the stablecoin market from Open USD, Visa, and Stripe.
- Kalshi and Polymarket secured a temporary halt against Minnesota's prediction-market ban, gaining a legal reprieve as these platforms continue to contest state-level challenges across the nation.
- Fanatics acquired a regulated exchange to enhance its prediction-market operations, positioning the $30 billion sports merchandise giant directly in competition with Kalshi and Polymarket.
- Kraken parent Payward has purchased Magic Labs' embedded wallet business, integrating a platform that has created over 60 million wallets since 2018, while Magic rebrands to Newton Labs to focus on its on-chain finance authorization layer.
Corporate Treasuries & ETFs
- The Bitcoin ETFs experienced $12 million in net outflows on Monday, while ETH ETFs saw $12 million in inflows.
Meme Coin Tracker
- Meme leaders showed significant declines; DOGE is down 4%, SHIB is down 6%, PEPE is down 5%, PENGU is down 8%, TRUMP is down 6%, and BONK is down 5%.
- Robinhood chain did not report any notable movers; leaders PONS (-17%) and Cashcat (-13%) fell, while Stonkbroker remained steady at $13 million.
- Solana leaders included bulltom (+70x), Brotchen (+60%) and Cards (+12%); ANSEM is down 7% at $165 million, while EPIK is up 10% to $14 million.
💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker
- Coinbase introduced a "Launches" tab in its DEX, enabling users to discover and trade new Base and Solana tokens as soon as they launch on-chain.
- The Fomo app recorded its highest weekly revenue of $1.79 million and fees of $1.96 million.
- Pons announced that it has already repurchased and burned 22% of its PONS token.
- Stablecoin chain Stable reported a transaction volume increase of over 700% within two days, leading to some RPC mempools reaching capacity as it works to expand its infrastructure, although it emphasized that the network is functioning normally and continues to produce blocks.
🚚 What is happening in NFTs?
- NFT leaders showed mixed results; Punks increased by 1% to 32.5 ETH, BAYC fell 1.5% to 8.45 ETH, Pudgy dropped 2% to 4.07 ETH; Hypurr’s decreased by 3% to 188 HYPE.
- StonkBrokers (+5% to 2 ETH) and Satari (+58%) were among the top gainers.
- FWA has introduced new token packs, allowing items like Pokemon cards or tokenized stocks to be included in the prize pool, starting with wrapped ERC20s such as PNKSTR tokens.