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 fell 1% to 2% alongside stocks, with Bitcoin near $80,000.
• HYPE rose after a partnership was announced with the NYSE to bring perpetual futures to the United States.
• Bitcoin ETFs recorded another $137 million in net inflows, turning October positive.
• Visa’s annualized stablecoin settlement volume has increased more than tenfold year over year.
• Y Combinator identified six crypto focus areas centered on crypto artificial intelligence, stablecoins and tokenization.

Hedge funds leave the Bitcoin ETF trade as sovereign wealth steps in

Large institutions are required to disclose their holdings to the SEC every quarter. Aggregated filings from just before Bitcoin’s October 2025 high through the end of June show that nine hedge funds and banks sold approximately 68,000 Bitcoin worth of ETF shares over the nine-month period, valued at roughly $5.4 billion at current prices. Because those disclosures are quarterly snapshots, the figures capture positioning at reporting dates rather than in real time.

Millennium, Brevan Howard, Goldman Sachs, D.E. Shaw and five other institutions led the selling. Some reduced their positions by one-third, while others exited entirely.

The selling was not necessarily a judgment on Bitcoin itself. The strategy involved buying a Bitcoin ETF while simultaneously taking a short position in Bitcoin futures — a structure commonly known as the basis trade — allowing traders to capture the difference between the two prices. When the spread was sufficiently wide, the trade could generate a return whether Bitcoin rose or fell, provided the spread exceeded the return from holding cash in Treasury bills.

Before Bitcoin reached its high, the spread offered an annualized return of 7.9%, or 3.9 percentage points more than Treasury bills. By late October, it had narrowed to 4.8%, only about half a percentage point above Treasury bills. After fees and financing costs, Galaxy’s Alex Thorn estimated that the remaining return was approximately 1.5 percentage points above cash.

“That arithmetic, not the price, is why the multi-strategy desks left,” Thorn wrote.

Futures data showed a similar development. Both sides of the trade declined by nearly identical amounts, approximately 57% each.

Other institutional investors moved in as hedge funds reduced their positions, reshaping the profile of the ETF market’s largest reported holders. Buyers included Morgan Stanley’s wealth management arm, Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. Approximately 2,200 other filers collectively added about 20,000 Bitcoin.

Investors whose holdings were too small to require public filings—including advisers, family offices and individual investors—reduced their holdings by only 6.6% while Bitcoin’s price fell 49%.

Since June, funds have added 87,000 Bitcoin, this time through direct purchases rather than the ETF-futures arbitrage strategy.

The interest-rate outlook has also shifted. The Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged on Wednesday, while expectations for December have softened. A month earlier, traders assigned a 59% probability to two rate hikes by the end of the year. That probability is now zero, and expected tightening has been reduced by roughly half. Because the basis trade’s appeal was benchmarked against Treasury-bill yields, the December meeting is the next scheduled checkpoint for the arithmetic behind it.

October’s ETF flows reflected the change. The month was down $907 million at its midpoint, but was essentially flat through Tuesday after $724 million entered during the previous eight sessions.

Macro, crypto and markets

Major cryptocurrencies were lower, although HYPE rose following the NYSE partnership. Bitcoin fell 1.6% to $80,000, Ethereum declined 2% to $2,320, Solana dropped 3% to $100, HYPE gained 7% to $88 and Zcash fell 3% to $1,270. Among other altcoins, PI rose 3%, SPX gained 4% and STABLE increased 2%.

Oil was unchanged at $102, while gold fell 0.1% to $4,040. Stock futures were lower after Google declined 7% following its earnings report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 0.28% and Nasdaq futures declined 1%.

The Federal Reserve held its target rate at 3.75% to 4.00% in a 10-2 vote. Both dissenting officials favored another quarter-point increase.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is partnering with Trade.xyz to launch regulated perpetual futures in the United States, according to Bloomberg. Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiration date that allow traders to hold leveraged positions indefinitely, a format that originated in crypto markets. The venue will run on Hyperliquid’s infrastructure and offer contracts tied to equities, indexes, commodities and foreign exchange, pending regulatory approval. ICE is also taking an equity stake in Trade.xyz on undisclosed terms.

CZ said demand for tokenized U.S. stocks — blockchain-based representations of shares — is coming primarily from outside the United States. Speaking to Andy of The Rollup, he said people abroad often have difficulty opening U.S. brokerage accounts. He also noted that some countries with populations exceeding 100 million have stock markets that trade only $50 million per day. CZ argued that tokenization could also provide access to assets that do not have established markets, including water and rare earth minerals.

JPMorgan, Coca-Cola, Dell, AMD, Adobe, Applied Materials and Sandisk joined the companies blocking tokenized versions of their shares on the OKX-ICE venue. The number of companies objecting reached 33 in 13 days, a reminder that tokenized-share venues rely on issuer cooperation that many companies have so far declined to give.

Visa’s annualized stablecoin settlement volume surpassed $25 billion, more than 10 times its level a year earlier. Stablecoins are blockchain tokens pegged to fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar.

In its October request for startups, Y Combinator identified six crypto priorities for the next six months: artificial-intelligence-powered fundraising, U.S. dollar and non-U.S. dollar stablecoins, stablecoin neobanks, real-world-asset tokenization, trading platforms, and API infrastructure for AI agents. The organization said growth is now being driven by institutional adoption rather than retail speculation.

A new Ipsos survey conducted for the DeFi Education Fund found that 22% of American adults had tried crypto, up from 18%. Past-year usage remained unchanged at 13%, indicating that essentially all of the increase came from people who tried crypto but did not continue using it.

Blockchain data provider Allium, whose customers include Visa, Stripe and Coinbase, disclosed unauthorized access to its systems on October 25. The company revoked every existing API key and instructed customers to reset their passwords, enable multifactor authentication and issue new credentials.

Corporate treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs recorded $137 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while Ether ETFs saw $21 million in net outflows.

Strategy shareholders approved a proposal allowing its four preferred stocks to accrue dividends every calendar day, including weekends. The proposal received 99.3% support. The change increases the number of STRC dividend record dates from 24 per year to 365, with the stated aim of reducing volatility in the shares.

Meme coin tracker

Meme coins were generally lower. DOGE fell 2%, SHIB declined 2%, PEPE dropped 1%, PENGU fell 1%, TRUMP declined 2%, SPX rose 3% and BONK fell 1%.

Leaders on the Robinhood chain were mixed. Pons fell 5% to a $185 million market capitalization, Cashcat was unchanged at $100 million and AI rose 3% to $72 million. Standard gained 10%, Stonkbroker rose 7% and Pizza was among the top movers, increasing 275 times.

Top Solana movers included Dubble, up 100 times; Float, up 150 times; GTA6, up 100%; and Catbot, up 700%. Stonk rose 20% to a $160 million market capitalization.

Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

Pump.fun introduced Perps for the Pump app. The product is powered by Hyperliquid and offers leverage of up to 20x to 40x on major cryptocurrencies. Perpetual-futures callouts will also earn callout rewards.

Hyperliquid led on-chain protocols in revenue with $2.04 million, followed by Pump.fun at $1.71 million and Collector Crypt at $427,000.

Birch Hill, founded by alumni of Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, raised $4 million in a round led by Multicoin Capital. The company plans to bring U.S. apartment, farm and energy loans onto public blockchains, the real-world-asset tokenization area Y Combinator flagged as a crypto priority for the next six months.

Moody’s assigned Ripple’s RLUSD an A2 long-term rating and a P-1 short-term rating, one day after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved Ripple’s national trust bank. Moody’s cited reserves held mostly in Treasury bills at BNY and a 103% coverage target.

NFT market

NFT leaders were mixed. Punks fell 4% to 29.3 ETH, Bored Ape Yacht Club rose 3% to 6.35 ETH and Pudgy Penguins were unchanged at 2.53 ETH.

OSF Red Light District rose 150% and Musegod Muses gained 141%, making them the top movers.