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.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors are up another 5-10% with BTC leading; BTC at $77.4k
• The BTC ETFs saw $606M in inflows and ETH had $219M, new local highs
• Over $1.2B in crypto shorts liquidated in the past 24 hours, nearly $5B in 2 days
• CFTC Chair says he’ll write the crypto rules himself if Congress won’t
• Pump Fun posts 2 biggest back-to-back revenue days since January, PUMP +25%

CFTC Chair Says He Will Write Crypto Rules Himself if Congress Won’t

The Clarity Act has been stuck in the Senate since lawmakers left for the August recess without a procedural vote, leaving the bill still short of the roughly six Democratic votes it needs to clear 60. That matters because any U.S. crypto market structure overhaul will have to survive a narrow legislative path, and the longer the bill sits, the more room regulators have to move first.

On Thursday, CFTC Chair Michael Selig told a room full of crypto executives that if the bill remains stalled, his agency will build the framework on its own.

“If Clarity continues to stall because of Democrat obstruction, the CFTC will utilize its existing authorities to begin establishing a regime for crypto asset markets,” Selig said at the inaugural meeting of the agency’s Innovation Advisory Committee.

He said staff have already been directed to explore rules that would codify a CFTC market structure for digital assets, and added that he will direct them to formally propose those rules if Congress does not act.

“Rest assured, I will direct CFTC staff to move swiftly.”

Under the framework Selig described, both existing CFTC registrants and currently unregistered crypto exchanges could fall under agency oversight. Leveraged and margined crypto trading would likely be permitted under rules tailored to digital assets.

Selig also directed staff to work directly with developers of onchain finance protocols to determine how they can operate legally in the U.S., a sign that the agency is looking beyond centralized exchanges to the broader onchain stack.

On the question of Congress, Selig said legislation remains his preferred path because agency-written rules can be unwritten by a future administration. He described the bill as the surest way to prevent another Gary Gensler from using lawfare against crypto again.

But if Congress will not do it, Selig said, he will.

This week has already seen several policy moves. On Tuesday, the SEC proposed its first formal crypto rules. On Wednesday, Trump pressed the Senate on Clarity and said Hyperliquid is coming to the U.S. On Thursday, Selig confirmed he is moving ahead with a crypto framework if Clarity stalls in September. For the industry, the sequence shows Washington is not waiting for a single bill to define the next phase of U.S. crypto oversight.

Washington has picked up the crypto ball and is running with it. Let’s see where they take it…

Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors were sharply higher again, up another 4-8% with BTC leading. BTC rose 8% to $77.5k, ETH gained 4% to $2,380, SOL added 4% to $91, and HYPE climbed 4% to $74.60.

Top altcoin movers included ENA (+40%), PUMP (+23%), FET (+20%), XRP (+20%), and ZEC (+15%) to $650.

Oil fell 2% to $87.20, while gold rose 2% to $4,650.

Stock futures were green, with the Dow up 0.4% and the Nasdaq up 0.5%.

Another $1.2B in shorts were liquidated over the past 24 hours as crypto prices surged, bringing the total close to $5B over the past two days.

Solana daily transactions hit a new all-time high on Thursday.

XRP posted its best week since the 2024 election pump, up roughly 40% from last weekend’s close below $1, helped by Bitcoin’s short squeeze.

X, formerly Twitter, is in talks to pay creators in stablecoins such as USDC as the platform phases out Revenue Sharing for a new Original Content Rewards Program.

An Optimism-funded development team cast the deciding vote with 17 minutes left, moving 546.9 million OP, worth about $49.7 million, out of the user airdrop allocation and into a Foundation-controlled fund.

Binance launched Agent OS, allowing AI agents such as ChatGPT and Claude to trade spot, margin, convert, and futures through an isolated sub-account with no withdrawal permissions.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

The Bitcoin ETFs saw $606M in net inflows on Thursday, the biggest day since May 1. The ETH ETFs saw $219M in inflows, their biggest day since September 2025. Those flows helped reinforce the day’s risk-on tone, with institutional demand once again tracking the move in spot prices.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme coins were also broadly higher, with DOGE up 9%, SHIB up 7%, PEPE up 17%, PENGU up 17%, TRUMP up 6%, BONK up 11%, and Fartcoin up 15%.

On the Robinhood chain, performance was mixed, with Cashcat up 11%, AI leading at 135%, and Robbie up 40%.

Solana leaders included Cate (+145%), Toad (+70%), and Jimothy (+40%). Ansem rose 15% to $290M.

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Pump Fun generated $2.3M in revenue on Wednesday and $2M on Thursday, its two biggest back-to-back days since January. More than $2M in buybacks helped lift PUMP to a $4.1B fully diluted valuation and a new local high.

Hyperliquid also recorded its two biggest revenue days since June, bringing in $3M to $4M over the past two days.

What Is Happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mixed. Punks were unchanged at 32.4 ETH, BAYC rose 7% to 8.1 ETH, Pudgy fell 1% to 3.74 ETH, and Stonkbrokers declined 2% to 5.5 ETH.

Among top movers, Gribbits rose 100%, Stackers gained 75%, and Hypurrs added 17%.

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