Morning Minute: Circle Earnings Highlight a Massive Day for Crypto

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. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors continue rebound rally, jump 4-6%; BTC at $68,200
• CRCL stock soars 35% after posting major Q4 amidst stablecoin boom
• Mr. Beast employee fined and suspended by Kalshi for insider trading
• Ethereum Foundation publishes updated roadmap highlighting focus thru 2029
• Tether invests $200M in online mp Whop, enabling USDT payments on their platform

💵 Circle Earnings Highlight a Massive Day for Crypto

Circle crushed earnings on the back of the stablecoin boom.

And the broader crypto market finally caught a bid.

📌 What Happened

Circle reported Q4 earnings yesterday morning and the numbers were incredible.

• USDC circulation hit $75.3B, up 72% year-over-year, nearly double their own 40% guidance
• Transaction volume reached $11.9T, up 247%
• Revenue and reserve income came in at $770M, up 77%
• Adjusted EBITDA up 412%

CRCL closed up 35% to $83.

That print kicked off a broad crypto rally.

• BTC bounced from $63K lows back to near $69K, up 7% on the day
• ETH reclaimed $2,075, up 12%
• SOL surged 14% to $90

Total liquidations hit $463M, with $400M+ from short positions across 100K+ traders.

Crypto stocks saw the love as well, with Coinbase closing up 13% and Strategy up 9%.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

Jeremy Allaire on the earnings call: “Tens or hundreds of billions of AI agents will interact and perform economic functions over the internet.”

Clear Street analysts to Decrypt: “The print reinforces continued USDC adoption despite a softer crypto backdrop.”

🧠 Why It Matters

Circle’s Q4 performance was massive and their poised to keep going.

Their $75B in USDC circulation, growing 72% while the broader crypto market is down 30%+ from highs, means stablecoin adoption is decoupling from crypto majors.

Dollars are moving on-chain regardless of whether BTC is up or down.

And Circle is certainly in prime position to benefit from future tailwinds from the likes of Meta’s planned stablecoin integration across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

Oh, and the GENIUS Act regulatory framework doesn’t start to kick in until November of 2026. So this is just the beginning of the wave.

As for broader crypto, it’s hard to think the bear market is over already.

But there are plenty of bottom signs. Things like the Jane Street lawsuit, MSTR being the most shorted stock, record time spent in Extreme Fear and cyclical technicals like 23 months since ATH break (historical bottom), all show that we are likely closer to the bottom than the top.

And the NVDA earnings beat means that the AI rally and broader stock market is likely in fine shape for the near future (another headwind removed).

It’s a prime setup for a crypto bounce. Now let’s see if it comes…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are very green and continuing the rebound rally; BTC +4% at $68.2K; ETH +7% at $2,070; SOL +5% at $88
• DCR (+15%), Stable (+14%), DOT (+13%) and AERO (+13%) led top movers
• BTC bounced 7% to near $69K after falling below $63K Tuesday, as whale buying and ETF inflows sparked a $400M short squeeze
• Circle (CRCL) surged 35% after huge Q4 results: USDC circulation $75.3B (+72%), transaction volume $11.9T (+247%), revenue $770M (+77%)
• Nvidia posted a record $68.1B in Q4 revenue (+73%), guided Q1 to $78B, and confirmed Vera Rubin sample shipments started (NVDA +3.5%)
• The Ethereum Foundation published its “strawmap”, a public developer roadmap targeting seven protocol forks through 2029 with north stars including 10K TPS via zkEVMs, first-class privacy, and post-quantum cryptography
• The Dutch government plans to impose a 36% tax on unrealized crypto gains, amending existing tax law to treat digital assets on a mark-to-market basis
• A UK parliamentary committee proposed a temporary ban on crypto donations in politics, citing foreign influence concerns and traceability issues
• An AI system discovered a critical bug in Nethermind’s Ethereum client, the latest win for AI-driven security auditing
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal opened a Senate inquiry into Binance over alleged $1.7B in transfers to Iran-linked entities including the Houthis

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were very green alongside majors; DOGE +4%, SHIB +1%, PEPE -2%, TRUMP +2%, PENGU +3%, SPX +6%, FARTCOIN +5%
• GORK (+469%) led top onchain movers; Pippkin (+20%), Griffain (+20%) and Pigeon (+70%) were other notable movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Tether invested $200M in online marketplace Whop at a $1.6B valuation; Whop serves 18.4M users with $3B in annual payouts, growing 25% MoM and Tether’s WDK wallet kit will enable USDT/USAT payments directly on the platform
• Kalshi fined and suspended a MrBeast video editor for insider trading on YouTube streaming markets, betting on which words MrBeast would say in videos he had pre-release access to; Kalshi’s first public enforcement action also hit a California political candidate who wagered on his own gubernatorial run
• Blockfills co-founder Nicholas Hammer stepped down as CEO as the Susquehanna-backed crypto lender continues to freeze client deposits and withdrawals following $75M in losses
• The Hyperliquid team shared that 173k HYPE ($4.9M) will be given to the team on March 6 for the March unlock
• GLDY launched on Base with 1 GLDY token equaling 1 oz of physical gold, touted as the first institutional grade gold token with yield

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly even in ETH terms despite the ETH rally; Punks -1% at 29.3 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 4.47 ETH, BAYC +1% at 6.04 ETH; Hypurr’s +1% at 470 HYPE
• Memeland Captainz (+23%) and Fableborne Primoridals (+36%) led top movers
• Pudgy Penguins announced new Pengu claw machines now live in select Urban Air locations in the USA