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 slightly red, with HYPE outperforming; BTC at $78.7k
• BTC ETFs see another $320M in inflows; ETH outperforms with $180M
• Hyperliquid activates AQAv2, routing more fees to buybacks and burns, and touts a new lending feature
• LayerZero introduces ATLAS as a new settlement and trading engine (ZRO +10%)
• Pistacio soars 200x as Pump.fun sees its biggest revenue day since Sept. 2025

LayerZero Wants to Be the Plumbing Behind Every Exchange

LayerZero spent six years building rails to move tokens between blockchains. On Tuesday, it announced ATLAS, a trading and settlement engine designed to sit underneath exchanges rather than compete with them. ZRO was trading near $1 earlier in the session and jumped more than 20% on the news.

ATLAS has no app and no frontend. Trading venues plug into it, keep their own interface and customers, and avoid building matching, clearing, settlement, and risk systems themselves. LayerZero argues that venues built on existing exchanges ultimately end up competing with that exchange’s own app, and that institutions will not put their core business on rails operated by a competitor.

The company is shipping two versions: one for crypto apps and prediction markets, and another for firms that need to enforce their own rules on the same engine. Markets can range from spot and perps to stocks, bonds, commodities, and predictions. That breadth matters because the pitch is not just about a new product, but about whether one shared settlement layer can serve markets that are still fragmented across separate venues and workflows.

ATLAS is the embodiment of our belief that the world’s rapidly expanding asset base needs a neutral, performant engine that underpins the venues that will build across markets spanning the globe. Any market, anywhere in the world, 24/7, with industry-leading performance, all… — LayerZero (@LayerZero_Core) August 25, 2026

ZRO is built into all of it. Venues stake the token for fee rebates of 20% to 65%, and after those rebates, 75% of what remains buys and burns ZRO while 25% goes to whoever created the market. That structure turns the token into a claim on trading volume, which is why the announcement moved the price.

The announcement comes at a critical time for the LayerZero ecosystem. In April, attackers took roughly $292 million from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge, and protocols have been leaving since, including BitGo’s $7.7 billion in wrapped Bitcoin and Wyoming’s state stablecoin, for roughly $15 billion in total. It has been a significant exodus.

LayerZero now says it has built the infrastructure to host major winners of the next cycle in perps, tokenized stocks, prediction markets, and broader RWAs. The next question is how potential partners respond.

Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors were slightly red, with HYPE leading. BTC was down 0.6% at $78.4k, ETH was flat at $2,460, SOL fell 2% to $97, and HYPE rose 3% to $82.

Top alt movers included ZRO (+10%), SPX (+10%), and PYTH (+4%).

Oil fell 2% to $80, and gold slipped 0.5% to $4,670.

Stock futures were flat ahead of PCE and NVIDIA earnings, with the DOW unchanged and the Nasdaq down 0.1%.

Crypto-margined Bitcoin futures fell to about 12% of open interest from near 100% in 2019 and 2020, with $570.08 million liquidated over the past 24 hours.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index reached 81, or “extreme greed,” for the first time since late 2024, after rising 45 points in 30 days.

Goldman Sachs raised its Coinbase target to $196 from $173 on Tuesday and kept a Buy rating, pointing to derivatives and prediction markets. Canaccord also lifted Strategy to $175 from $130, citing what it called a materially brighter setup.

The Blockchain Association urged regulators to keep stablecoin identity checks at the issuer level, warning that extending KYC to peer-to-peer transfers would “cripple the industry.”

Thirty-nine state banking associations signed on to the BankChain Alliance, a bank-owned network for tokenized deposits, stablecoins, and payments that is targeting a 2027 launch.

A federal jury convicted Block Bits Capital founder Japheth Dillman of wire fraud and conspiracy for raising nearly $1 million on trading software he knew did not work.

Security firm Socket linked 77 Firefox extensions to a wallet-stealing campaign, confirming 40 as malicious impersonations of OKX, Rabby, and TronLink.

Japan’s FSA, Finance Ministry, and central bank will form a study group this summer on blockchain rails for around-the-clock settlement of stocks and government bonds.

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Bitcoin ETFs saw $337 million in net inflows on Monday, while ETH ETFs saw $116 million in inflows.

Grayscale’s Zcash fund began trading Tuesday on NYSE Arca under the ticker ZCSH, converting a trust that has existed since October 2017.

Bitwise launched Automated Token Portfolios built on Coinbase’s tokenized stocks, allowing eligible non-U.S. investors to hold AI, robotics, and Magnificent Seven baskets in their own wallets.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were red: DOGE -4%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -5%, PENGU -4%, TRUMP -5%, and BONK -5%. Fartcoin rose 17% to $213 million.

The Robinhood chain saw gains again, with PONS up 40% to $88 million, AI up 35%, DELTA up 40%, YOLO up 45%, and NET up 110%. Cashcat gained 10% to $225 million.

Solana leaders included Pistacio (+200x), Martians (+50x), and nosis (+260%). Ansem gained 10% to $280 million.

Token, Airdrop and Protocol Tracker

Hyperliquid activated AQAv2 on Tuesday, routing roughly 90% of the reserve yield on USDC held at the protocol into HYPE buybacks and burns every 30 days.

Pump.fun generated $2.4 million in revenue yesterday, its highest daily total since September 2025.

The Grayscale Zcash ETF recorded $14.8 million in volume on its debut day.

What Is Happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mostly green, led by Pudgy’s. Punks were unchanged at 32.45 ETH, BAYC fell 2% to 8 ETH, and Pudgy rose 7% to 4.5 ETH.

RH Machines gained 46% and Hedgehogs rose 18%, leading the top movers.

FWAIR PFPs fell 11% to a 2.88 ETH floor, while the Token Works team published a post mortem from the first launch.