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. Decrypt's daily news show, "FOMO HOUR," covers the top stories and market action.

🗳️ Crypto Gives Up on Congress and Goes After Senators

Two weeks after the Clarity Act died in the Senate, the crypto industry has picked its targets. Stand With Crypto, the advocacy group Coinbase started in 2023, announced its first Senate endorsements on Wednesday, carrying a new message: the fight has moved from the Capitol to the campaign trail. With the bill stalled, the group's energy has shifted from lobbying lawmakers to electing them.

The group is backing Republican Jon Husted against Sherrod Brown, the former Senate Banking Committee chairman who has spent years as one of crypto's loudest critics. If Brown wins, he would hold a powerful seat on the committee that writes the industry's rules — which is why, according to the newsletter, Ohio matters more than the other two races combined.

Stand With Crypto also endorsed Republican Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Democrat Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, who is running against former Republican senator John Sununu. On the House side, the group is backing Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Alabama Democrat Shomari Figures, with more advertising planned across six races. The organization says it selects candidates based on their crypto positions regardless of party, and it endorsed 32 House incumbents in August.

The money behind these efforts is enormous, though Stand With Crypto does not donate directly. It grades candidates and turns out voters, and its executive director says its three million supporters are now focused entirely on electing pro-crypto candidates. Candidates it rates well tend to attract money from crypto-aligned PACs: the Fairshake PAC just launched a $30 million campaign against Brown. Total crypto political spending this cycle is approaching $200 million.

For context, the Clarity Act failed 49 to 50, with every Democrat voting against it over concerns about Trump's own crypto businesses. Yet Stand With Crypto is backing two more Democrats in the midterms — a slightly counter-intuitive bet, the newsletter notes, that may pay off. The answer will come when voters go to the polls in November.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors are mostly flat, with HYPE leading: BTC is even at $83,900; ETH is +1% at $2,705; SOL is -2% at $118; HYPE is +4% at $90; and ZEC is -2% at $1,410.

Top alt movers include STX (+18%), NIGHT (+16%), and FET (+6%).

Oil is +2% at $93; gold is -0.2% at $4,202.

Stock futures are slightly green: the Dow +0.01%, Nasdaq +0.45%.

Citi raised its end-of-year Bitcoin target to $113,000 and its Ethereum target to $3,028, citing ETF flows, digital asset treasury (DAT) buybacks, and SEC rule changes.

Policy and Regulation

The CFTC sent the White House two rules that would redefine "swap" around event contracts, locking in its authority over prediction markets as states sue platforms for running illegal gambling. Prediction markets let users trade directly on the outcomes of real-world events, and the rules would cement federal oversight of the sector while those state court fights play out.

The CFTC is also investigating Adam Kinzinger over Kalshi trades on whether he would receive a presidential pardon — trades placed in late 2024, before Biden pardoned him.

Companies and Products

MetaMask Staking is pulling all of its Ethereum validators out of Lido, a liquid staking service, after someone broke into its infrastructure. The exits will finish by October 7, with the ETH taking up to 45 days to cycle back through Ethereum's exit process.

Open Standard launched OUSD, a stablecoin — a token built to hold a steady value — that gives away most of its own equity to the partners who help it grow. It is backed by more than 100 companies, including Visa, Stripe, Mastercard, and Coinbase, and went live on Tempo with over $400 million in liquidity.

Zcash holders approved $8.39 million in retroactive grants for work already done, funding 17 of 37 proposals, including $1.5 million to the researcher who found a bug that would have allowed someone to counterfeit coins.

Lloyds settled $750,000 with Visa using USDC, a US dollar stablecoin, in a seven-day test, marking Visa's first stablecoin settlement trial with a major UK bank.

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

ETF net flows — money in minus money out — are among the most closely watched gauges of traditional investor demand for crypto. Bitcoin ETFs saw $149 million in net outflows on Wednesday; Ether ETFs saw $60 million in outflows, and Solana products saw $12.5 million in outflows.

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders were red: DOGE even, SHIB -1%, PEPE +1%, PENGU -6%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +3%, BONK -6%.

Robinhood chain leaders were mostly red, with Orbio leading: Pons -4% to $370 million; AI -11% at $160 million; Cashcat -1% at $170 million; Orbio +60% to $100 million; Hookr +23%, Prism +20%, and Priors +100% were top movers.

Solana top movers were led by SI +500%, e/acc +60%, Micro +24x, OCT +60%, and Backpack 50x; Ansem -1% at $138 million.

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Decrypt is becoming The Information Exchange, pairing its reporting with markets on Solana so readers can trade on a story without leaving it. The MYR token ties the products together, with rollouts planned over the coming weeks into Solana Breakpoint.

Solana's monthly app revenue hit a nine-month high of $180 million in September, leading all chains.

Pump again led onchain protocols in revenue with $2.39 million, followed by Hyperliquid with $1.25 million and Stonk with $1.17 million.

Monad teased a privacy update coming as a potential protocol offering.

🚚 What Is Happening in NFTs?

NFT leaders were mixed: Punks -1% at 33 ETH, BAYC +2% at 6.2 ETH, and Pudgy -3% at 3.19 ETH.

OTC Desks (+88%) and Hypurr (+12%) led top movers.

A Zombie CryptoPunk sold for $875,000 overnight, the biggest Punk sale since August 2025 — a notable result for one of the earliest and most closely watched NFT collections.