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.

Today's top news:

• Crypto majors are slightly green as oil and yields fall; BTC is at $86,300
• The CFTC has published a plan to regulate crypto exchanges via Regulation CTX and CAM
• The SEC has cleared 3x leveraged BTC and ETH funds for trading
• Polymarket unveiled its Protocol v2; Predict Fun teased its token launch
• Pump.fun revenue is up 20% on the week, with app usage at an all-time high

The CFTC Wants to License Crypto Exchanges

Three weeks after the Clarity Act died in the Senate, the CFTC published its own plan to regulate crypto exchanges. It is an early document asking for public input before anyone drafts real rules, with 60 days to comment once it hits the Federal Register — that feedback window is the next checkpoint, and the responses would inform whatever binding text the agency proposes. But it lays out what Congress could not pass: a federal license for crypto exchanges, with leverage deciding who needs one.

Why they're writing it. Crypto trading currently runs under rules built for other markets, or under state licenses that vary from state to state. The CFTC wants one federal option instead of fifty. The two pieces of the plan are Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM.

Which trades it covers. Mainly trades involving borrowed money, or where borrowing is merely offered. The agency reads a 2010 Dodd-Frank provision broadly enough that even a fully paid trade could count if the exchange mentions leverage in its terms and holds customer crypto on its own books.

What a license allows. Matching buyers and sellers, holding customer money and crypto, settling trades, and lending. One company could perform several of these functions, with separate approvals for each. Trades would run through brokers already subject to anti-money-laundering rules, and only those brokers or their sponsoring banks could provide leverage.

The customer protections. Exchanges would have to separate customer money from company money, keep records, watch for manipulation, verify loans, and plan for losses. The agency is also weighing proof-of-reserves requirements and standards against listing easily manipulated tokens.

The tradeoff. Clearer rules let US companies offer more, which is why traders read this as good for perps onshore. A license also means compliance costs, however, and some products will not survive them.

CFTC Chair Mike Selig said the rules are designed to prevent fraud like FTX rather than prosecute it afterward, and he posted a promotional video to make the point. The notice also disowns the agency's own history, calling the Biden-era cases against Kraken, Ooki DAO, and Uniswap regulation by enforcement — shorthand for setting policy through lawsuits rather than written rules.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 📺 pic.twitter.com/hbDcjjI69B — Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) October 5, 2026

Source: Mike Selig on X

The bull case is straightforward. A federal license would let US exchanges offer leveraged products they currently cannot, which is why traders read this as the clearest path yet for perpetual futures onshore — leveraged derivative contracts with no expiry date. Robinhood just announced US crypto perps, Coinbase has filed for single-stock perps, and Kraken's parent is negotiating with Hyperliquid. All three, Warner writes, need a door like this to exist. Clear rules would also make it easier for banks and brokers to touch crypto at all, since "which regulator covers this" has been the blocker for years.

In his telling, this all leads to easier onboarding, potential user growth, and broader growth of the industry. Growth of the industry likely means prices go up — at least for some assets, and certainly not for all — and crypto becomes an investable asset class for the masses once again.

Macro, Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors are mostly flat: BTC +0.2% at $86,300; ETH -0.1% at $2,714; SOL -0.3% at $120; HYPE +0.6% at $93.60; ZEC +4% at $1,370.

Top altcoin movers include ZRO (+13%), FIL (+6%), RAY (+8%) and NEAR (+4%).

Oil is down 2% at $88; gold is up 0.6% at $4,180. Stock futures are green as oil and yields slide: the Dow +0.4%, the Nasdaq +0.4%.

The US Treasury killed two crypto surveillance proposals: a 2020 rule tracking self-custody wallet transfers and a 2023 plan targeting mixers. The wallet rule would have made banks keep records on transfers over $3,000 and report those over $10,000.

The SEC approved six funds that triple the daily moves of Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, silver, oil and gas, clearing a Cboe rule change on October 2. These funds reset daily by design, so they aim to track three times a single session's move rather than returns over longer periods.

Ethereum ran its first transaction that works across the main chain and a layer-2 at the same time, moving 0.001 ETH in a test under the Ethereum Economic Zone framework. The two halves either both succeed or both reverse, and the goal is to stop Ethereum's dozens of networks from feeling like separate places.

ZachXBT spent $349,700 of his own money to pose as a client of a Chinese crime ring laundering funds for North Korea. He lost 5% on every order and held the story for 18 months while the case was live. The intelligence helped freeze Bybit hack funds, including $442,000 in Tether that was locked.

Stripe plans to run stablecoin cards in more than 100 countries by year-end, as spending on them hit $1.2 billion last month — triple the level of a year ago.

OKX and the NYSE's parent listed more than 60 stocks they want to put onchain, including Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet. Each token would be backed one-for-one by a real share held at a broker, and buyers would purchase them with stablecoins from a pool rather than through a traditional order book.

OKX says AI now does the main work on about 95% of its code changes, with engineers left to review and approve. Founder Star Xu said the company's bill to AI model providers hit $10 million last month.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

The Bitcoin ETFs saw $90 million in net outflows on Monday; the ETH ETFs saw $51 million in outflows.

Strategy booked a $20.91 billion paper gain on Bitcoin in the third quarter, its first profitable quarter in a year. It bought just 334 BTC for $28.7 million while spending $176 million buying back STRC.

Metaplanet sold 10,000 Bitcoin for $789 million and bought back 11,000 for $949 million to show credit agencies it can turn Bitcoin into cash on demand.

Bitmine bought another 15,112 ETH for about $41 million, reaching 99% of its goal to own 5% of all Ethereum. It now holds 6,016,414 ETH worth roughly $16.4 billion.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were red: DOGE -1%, SHIB -1%, PEPE -4%, PENGU -2%, TRUMP -2%, SPX -5%, BONK -6%.

Robinhood chain leaders were mostly flat: Pons -1% to $266 million; AI even at $110 million; Cashcat -5% at $150 million; Boner and Orbio both -20%; v4 (+80%) and Bun (+30%) led top movers.

Solana top movers: Higgs +160%, Plague +220%, Crawl +55%, and Swordcat +60%.

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Pump led onchain protocols in revenue with $2.79 million; Hyper was next with $1.49 million, followed by Collector Crypt at $496,000.

Predict Fun teased its token launching soon.

Polymarket unveiled its Protocol V2, with settlement now pulling from both UMA and Chainlink — two oracle services that report real-world outcomes to blockchains — instead of a single source.

Binance launched an AI suite that turns plain-English trading ideas into working strategies, alongside a free market assistant and a developer platform. AI Pro costs $19.99 a month and arrives in late October, while the developer tools have been live since August.

What Is Happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mostly flat: Punks even at 33 ETH, BAYC even at 5.95 ETH, Pudgy +3% at 3.07 ETH.

Long Neck Brokers (+46x) and Quotrons (+9%) led top movers.

Claus debuted at a 0.9 ETH floor; it is a new collection tied to the Claus AI token.