Morning Minute: Crypto Crashes, New Lows In Sight

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors crash 7-10%; BTC at $62,600
• Arthur Hayes says he sold his entire HYPE & NEAR positions, cites looming market top
• Recent alt winners HYPE, ZEC, NEAR and VVV all give back 10-20%
• Tom Lee’s BMNR files for new $300M pref stock raise following Saylor playbook
• MoonPay launches MoonAgents, connecting crypto infra to let AI agents trade on users behalf

📉 Crypto Crashes, New Lows In Sight

Bitcoin and crypto majors fell hard on Wednesday and overnight, and this time, the alt darlings were not spared.

Taking a look at the board:

• BTC fell 6% to $62,600
• Ethereum fell 6% to $1,750
• Solana fell 9% to $68.40
• Hyperliquid fell 9% to $65.70

What makes this down move different from the prior few days is that Hype and the recent alt winners all sold off hard as well. ZEC fell 12%, NEAR fell 18% and VVV fell 12%, all of which had hit new local highs on Wednesday. HYPE itself had hit $75 before the selloff.

Arthur Hayes certainly didn’t help, posting how he sold his entire HYPE and NEAR positions as he thinks the macro top is in or close. He pointed to higher energy prices, the three AI IPOs looming and anticipation of a surprising Trump pivot on AI to cause a market top between now and September.

As for Bitcoin, well, it’s in serious pain territory. The ETFs have seen 11 consecutive days of outflows, with $1.4 billion this week alone. Saylor remains a fud magnet with STRC now trading $5 below par. And BTC is rapidly approaching cycle lows.

That local bottom is at $60k, hit just briefly on Feb 5. If it doesn’t hold, unfortunately it’s probably “look out below”…

💰 Bitmine Is Copying Strategy’s Playbook While STRC Crashes

Bitmine filed on Wednesday to offer 3 million shares of Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock at a $100 stated value, targeting a $300 million raise at a 9.5% annual dividend rate. Shares will list on the NYSE under ticker BMNP.

The structure is explicitly modeled on Strategy’s STRC, meaning Tom Lee is applying Saylor’s preferred stock financing playbook to his Ethereum treasury.

The timing is very interesting as Strategy’s STRC carries 11.5% and has faced real liquidity pressure as of late. After their cash reserves fell to $871 million against $1.7 billion in annual obligations, STRC has traded well below par (sub-$95 yesterday), and Strategy sold Bitcoin last week for the first time in four years to fund dividends.

Bitmine’s position is structurally different. The firm holds 5.42 million ETH (4.5% of Ethereum’s circulating supply) generating over $300 million annually in staking revenue through its MAVAN validators. The staking income funds dividend obligations without touching the principal. Bitmine doesn’t need to sell assets to pay its preferred holders—the assets pay for themselves.

So in theory, this product should be relatively “safe.” But at the same time, it’s a drop in the bucket.

With ETH below $1,828, Bitmine is sitting on an estimated $9 billion in losses from its average accumulation price. An extra $300M in buy pressure isn’t going to do much to fix that…

🤖 MoonPay Just Let Claude and Codex Trade Crypto on Your Behalf

MoonPay launched the MoonAgents Desktop app on Wednesday, a graphical interface that lets Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex connect directly to crypto wallets, token swaps, prediction markets, and blockchain services without command-line configuration.

Users sign in with existing Claude or Codex accounts, then the app sets up the underlying AI infrastructure behind the scenes. Prebuilt Skills handle common crypto actions like buying, selling, price alerts, while Automations let agents execute tasks on a schedule without user input. An Artifacts feature builds visual dashboards generated by the AI itself.

Private keys are stored locally in encrypted form, so MoonPay never holds assets. Connecting a Ledger adds an approval gate so the AI pauses before any transaction. The underlying MoonAgents MCP server covers 54 crypto tools across 17 skills and 10 chains, broader than Coinbase’s payment-focused MCP or Gemini’s exchange-custodied trading tools.

For an example use case, someone could text Claude Dispatch on their phone “rebalance my portfolio”—and the agent executes the trades, logs the activity, and generates a dashboard without you opening an app.

The agentic trading future is happening, and MoonPay is helping to usher it in…

⚽️ The World Cup Starts in 7 Days and Crypto Scams Are Heating Up

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off June 11 in Mexico City and runs through July 19 in New York City. Law enforcement agencies are warning soccer fans that the scams targeting them are more sophisticated and more crypto-heavy than any prior tournament.

The FBI, LASD, and Malwarebytes all issued warnings this week. Cybercriminals are creating fake FIFA websites with AI-generated phishing sites that can clone legitimate brands within hours.

Malwarebytes found one site marketing a token as “the official community token celebrating the FIFA World Cup 2026,” complete with a 7-billion-token supply and a participant counter pinned to the symbolic number 48, the count of qualified teams. Another used FIFA’s official mascot to sell an unlicensed token. Bitdefender Labs found more than 55 active football-themed scam campaigns across fake online stores, malicious social media ads, IPTV piracy, and FIFA-themed giveaways.

Malwarebytes’ global head of scam research was blunt: “Scammers love crypto. It helps them remain anonymous and it’s mostly impossible to reverse the transaction. If it has to do with crypto, just stop.”

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are very red down 7-10% in one of the worst days of the year; BTC -6% at $62.6k; ETH -6% at $1,750; SOL -9% at $68.4; HYPE -9% at $65.70
• Recent alt movers ZEC (-12%), NEAR (-18%), and VVV (-18%) all fell double digits
• Siren (+29%) and BEAT (+12%) led top movers
• Oil -1% at $94.30; Gold +1% at $4,500
• Stock futures are very red with Nasdaq down 1.25%
• Arthur Hayes sold his entire HYPE and NEAR position, citing higher energy prices due to Iran, the 3 AI IPOs and that markets will peak between now and September
• Tether and Fasset launched the world’s first gold-backed Visa card, letting users spend fiat globally while earning up to 6% cashback in XAUT (Tether Gold)
• Mastercard launched 24/7 stablecoin settlement across its global network, supporting USDC and other stablecoins on Ethereum, Solana, and a variety of chains with intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement now available alongside traditional rails
• A physical Casascius Bitcoin coin containing 25 BTC was redeemed Tuesday for $1.78 million, 12 years after it was minted in December 2011 when those coins were worth less than $100 total

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were very red; DOGE -6%, SHIB -7%, PEPE -8%, PENGU -6%, TRUMP -10%, BONK -9%, SPX -9%, FARTCOIN -11%
• three (+223%), Heavypulp (+400%) and LOA (+80%) led movers on Solana
• Base movers included degen (+47%), dickbutt (+100%) and gSpeed (+140%)

📈 Myriad Market of the Day

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were red alongside crypto majors; Punks -1% at 30.8 ETH, BAYC -4% at 7.78 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.07 ETH; Hypurr’s -4% at 287 HYPE
• CDBs (+35%) and DEL (+29%) led top movers