Morning Minute: Bitcoin Clears $80K, Reverses on Iran Missile Strike

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. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes or less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

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Today’s top news:

• Bitcoin passes $80K before selling off after Iranian missile strike
• Clarity Act odds jump to 65% on new stablecoin yield language
• Tether Q1 attestation reveals $1B in profit for the quarter
• Hyperliquid’s HIP-4 prediction markets launch, does $10M volume opening weekend
• NFT market sees multiple grail sales, an Art Blocks run, Fidenzas and Masks jumping and more in another big weekend

📈 Bitcoin Clears $80,000 Amid “Project Freedom” Announcement

Bitcoin crossed $80,000 Sunday night after President Trump announced “Project Freedom”—a US military operation beginning Monday to escort neutral foreign ships out of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump called it a “humanitarian gesture” at the request of countries whose vessels are stranded in the Gulf, and warned that any Iranian interference “will be dealt with forcefully.” Oil fell on the news as markets priced in the possibility of partial Hormuz reopening for the first time since the war began February 28. BTC responded immediately, hitting its highest level since early February.

Notably, this Bitcoin movement came on a week of lower ETF inflows ($160M in net inflows for BTC ETFs with $630M coming on Friday), and zero bid from Saylor who didn’t buy last week. That’s expected to change this week, with STRC likely trading back at par before Friday.

Then early this morning, price reversed after reports that Iran struck a U.S. warship with 2 missiles. Oil spiked 4% back to $105, Bitcoin fell from local highs of $80,400 to sub-$79LK, and stock futures flipped red. Looks like we aren’t out of the woods just yet…

✅ The Clarity Act Just Cleared a Major Roadblock

Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks released the final stablecoin yield compromise text Friday night, removing what had been arguably the central obstacle blocking the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act from advancing.

The latest change: Stablecoin issuers and digital asset platforms cannot offer yield, interest, or any return simply for holding a stablecoin (a win for the banks). But activity-based rewards tied to transactions, platform use, loyalty programs, and real participation are all still OK for yield (a win for crypto protocols).

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s response was two words: “Mark it up.” Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal said the language “preserves activity-based rewards tied to real participation on crypto platforms and networks.”

Polymarket odds of the Clarity Act passing in 2026 jumped ~20 points to 65% on the news. The remaining primary hurdle seems to be ethics provisions tied to the Trump family’s crypto businesses. If that hurdle can somehow be cleared, then the Clarity Act may actually pass in 2026…

💰 Tether Posts $1.04B Q1 Profit

Tether published its Q1 2026 attestation on Friday, with some big headline numbers.

The leading stablecoin provider brought in $1.04 billion in net profit for the quarter, and excess reserves climbed to a record $8.23 billion—the highest in the company’s history. Total assets came in at $191.77 billion against $183.54 billion in liabilities, with $141 billion of that reserve base sitting in U.S. Treasury bills.

That Treasury position makes Tether the 17th-largest holder of US government debt in the world, ahead of Taiwan, Israel, and the UAE. The remaining reserves include roughly $20 billion in physical gold and $7 billion in Bitcoin, together about 14% of the reserve base, held as a macro hedge.

Tether also said it has formally begun the process of a comprehensive independent audit this quarter by a “Big Four” accounting firm—its first ever. Tether has operated on attestations since 2021 following its $18.5 million CFTC settlement. A full audit, if completed by a major accounting firm, would be the most significant transparency milestone in the company’s history and would address the single most common institutional objection to USDT as a reserve asset.

🤖 MoonPay Just Gave AI Agents a Credit Card

MoonPay launched the MoonAgents Card on Friday as a virtual Mastercard debit card that lets AI agents spend stablecoins directly from onchain wallets at any of Mastercard’s 150 million+ accepting merchants worldwide.

The card is built on the Model Context Protocol, the same open standard Gemini used to launch its Agentic Trading product last week. An AI agent connected to MoonPay’s platform can now autonomously complete purchases, pay for services, and settle invoices in stablecoins without any human in the loop.

The product is the practical implementation of what the AI agent economy has been pointing toward for two years. Theoretical frameworks for machine-to-machine payments have circulated since the first LLM agents emerged—the missing piece was always a spend layer that worked in the real world without custom integrations.

MoonPay’s Mastercard partnership solves that by routing stablecoin balances through existing card rails rather than building new merchant infrastructure. The launch comes one week after MoonPay acquired Israeli firm Sodot for $100 million to build out MoonPay Institutional, positioning the company at the institutional and agentic ends of the crypto adoption curve.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are green but falling after reports Iran struck a US warship; BTC +0.5% at $78.9k; ETH +1% at $2,335; SOL even at $84; HYPE +0.4% at $41.25
• Dash (+19%), Ondo (+12%), and WLFI (+6%) led top movers
• Oil +4% at $105; Gold -1.3% at $4,560
• Stock futures are slightly red after oil spiked 4% on back of Iran’s strike
• The Ethereum Foundation completed its third OTC sale to Bitmine on Friday, selling another 10,000 ETH at $2,292/ETH (~$22.9M), following an identical 10,000 ETH sale the prior week; the Foundation says proceeds fund protocol R&D, ecosystem development, and community grants
• Circle published a quantum-resistant roadmap for Arc, its L1 blockchain, adopting phased post-quantum signatures across wallets, validators, and infrastructure
• Brazil’s central bank banned crypto from regulated cross-border payments, removing stablecoins from its eFX framework
• SBI Holdings is in talks to acquire Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank as a subsidiary

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were slightly green; DOGE +2%, SHIB -1%, PEPE +1%, PENGU +1%, TRUMP -1%, BONK +1%, SPX +1%, FARTCOIN +3%
• TROLL (+50%), GIGA (+50%), Wojak (+50%) and TripleT (+65%) led notable movers; Cards +40% as well
• On ETH, UPEG rebounded 20% to $18M, Wojak jumped 27% to $32M and Asteroid +12% to $147M
• An attacker tricked Grok into sending it 3B DRB tokens, which the attacker immediately sold for $150k

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Hyperliquid officially launched its prediction markets via its HIP-4, doing $6M in volume in its first day
• Sonic Labs launched USSD, a network-native stablecoin built on Frax Finance infrastructure backed 1:1 by BlackRock Treasury assets

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders are cooling off after another weekend rally; Punks even at 31 ETH, BAYC -2% at 10.7 ETH, Pudgy even at 5.6 ETH; Hypurr’s +2% at 354 HYPE
• Masks of Luci (+21%), Fidenza (+14%) and Luci (+14%) led notable top movers
• A new Art Blocks mint ‘Gift of Time’ ran over 50x from its 0.025 ETH mint price to a 1.2 ETH floor (0.66 ETH now)
• 2 Hoodie CryptoPunks sold overnight for $479k and $269k
• A Gold-skinned Bored Ape sold for $211,111 on Saturday, one of the biggest sales of the year