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 mixed, with HYPE leading; BTC at $78k
• ETF inflows stay green, with $217M for BTC and $88M for ETH
• Kraken in talks with Hyperliquid to bring perps to the US (HYPE +3%)
• Former SEC and CFTC officials urge lighter rules for perps
• Robinhood Chain beats Hyperliquid in revenue as token leaders soar

Saylor Sold BTC at $62,000 and Bought It Back at $80,000

Strategy—the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, formerly known as MicroStrategy—spent the summer doing something it had never done before: selling Bitcoin. Between May and August, the company parted with 6,948 BTC for roughly $432.5 million—about $62,250 per coin.

On Monday, it bought again for the first time since June, acquiring 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318. That is 29% higher than the price it received for the coins it sold, and the company still holds 2,345 BTC less than it did in the spring.

Both moves trace back to the same instrument: STRC, a preferred stock Strategy issues to fund Bitcoin purchases alongside common equity. When STRC slipped below its $100 par value in June, that funding route closed. The company then built a Digital Credit Capital Framework authorizing up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin sales to cover preferred dividends and buy back those shares at a discount. In short, it sold Bitcoin because selling equity had become too expensive. With MSTR having recovered enough that equity is again the cheaper option, the company returned to its old playbook: last week it sold 4,531,421 MSTR shares for $602.8 million net, directing $369.7 million to Bitcoin, $151.8 million to STRC buybacks, $50.7 million to preferred dividends, and $30 million into cash. That buyback-and-buy combination suggests the Monday purchase was a deliberate capital-structure decision rather than a simple momentum trade.

Strategy was not alone on Monday. Strive added 1,800 BTC for roughly $143 million at an average of $79,431, bringing its holdings to 23,156 BTC worth about $1.76 billion. Tom Lee's Bitmine made its largest Ethereum purchase since June. Three treasury companies stepped back in on the same day, after a summer in which most of them either sat out or sold—some potential signal there, it seems. Coordinated re-entry across these firms matters beyond their own balance sheets: treasury companies have been among the largest recurring sources of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum demand outside the ETFs, so a synchronized pause in buying was one of the demand-side drags of the summer.

Jokes about Saylor's fill price aside (seriously, an $80,318 average?), this was a fairly positive move by Strategy. The company sold $600M of MSTR stock and the stock was still up 5% on the week. It bought BTC and STRC while still managing to raise cash, so reserves are up across both BTC and cash. That seems good for just about everyone except MSTR holders—who, at this point, clearly do not mind the dilution.

The open question now is whether this was a one-off week or Saylor's new normal heading into Q4 2026. Watch the weekly filings: how Strategy splits proceeds between BTC, STRC buybacks, and cash will signal which funding route it currently finds cheaper.

Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors were mixed with HYPE leading: BTC -0.8% at $78k; ETH +0.2% at $2,455; SOL -1% at $102.2; HYPE +3% at $84
• Top alt movers included ARB (+30%), CRV (+18%), and UNI (+14%)
• Oil was even at $87; Gold -1% at $4,430
• Stock futures were red as bond yields rose: DOW -0.5%, Nasdaq -1%
• Kraken parent Payward is in advanced talks with Hyperliquid Labs to bring perpetual futures to US traders, days after Trump said the CFTC was working on a compliant onshore path
• A bipartisan group of former SEC and CFTC officials urged regulators toward lighter derivatives rules, warning that miscalibrated treatment keeps a $90 trillion offshore perps market from coming onshore
• Wallets tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group sold more than $30 million in Bitcoin on Hyperliquid over three weeks, rotating into ETH and SOL and moving funds to Kraken, LBank, and KuCoin
• Kalshi permanently banned George Santos and fined him $71,356 for trading a market on his own State of the Union attendance, then making false statements to move the price for a $17,839.57 profit
• Sberbank plans to accept ETH and USDT as loan collateral alongside Bitcoin, once Russia's new crypto law takes effect and regulators clear the assets for public trading
• Félix raised $200 million in Series B funding, splitting $87 million of equity led by a16z and a $113 million credit facility from General Catalyst, to expand its WhatsApp remittance service into lending and savings
• The London Stock Exchange partnered with Kraken parent Payward to tokenize the 100 largest UK-listed companies as xStocks, with the first tokens due within weeks and LSE 24 listings planned for 2027 pending approval

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $217M in net inflows on Monday; the ETH ETFs saw $88M in inflows and continued their green streak
• Bitmine made its largest Ethereum purchase since June, with Tom Lee pointing to a strong third quarter for crypto

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were mixed: DOGE even, SHIB +2%, PEPE -3%, PENGU even, TRUMP -1%, SPX +10%, Fartcoin +1%
• Robinhood chain leaders had a huge day: PONS +27%, AI +100%, Boner +300%, Up +30%, Moo +300%, and Mancer +80%
• Solana leaders included GPro (+80x to $3M), Useless (+50%), and Stonk (+30%); Ansem even at $290M
• BSC was led by Marscoi, +80% to $88M

Token, Airdrop, and Protocol Tracker

• Telegram opened Gram Wallet to a first group of users on Monday, with Durov saying the self-custodial wallet will reach the app's billion-plus users over the next couple of weeks
• MoonPay brought PayBox to Grok, letting X's chatbot onramp, swap, bridge, and pay from plain-language prompts across Solana and EVM chains
• The Fomo App passed $1B in weekly volume for the first time
• Robinhood Chain matched Hyperliquid in daily revenue at $1.92M (Pump did $2.16M)

What Is Happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were slightly red: Punks -1% at 31.7 ETH, BAYC -1% at 7.65 ETH, Pudgy -2% at 4 ETH
• Chain Mancers (+70%), Cache Flow (+90%), and Argonauts (+28%) led top movers
• OpenSea announced support for Solana NFTs