Morning Minute: Bitcoin Breaks $73K as Strategy's STRC Bid Grows

Strategy's STRC is buoying the Bitcoin bid, Galaxy stock is ripping, and Scott Bessent told the Senate to pass the Clarity Act—with Brian Armstrong chiming in.

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.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors up 1%; BTC at $72K
• ZEC and MON rally 20% leading top movers; HYPE +5%
• CZ and OKX founder Star publicly dispute, CZ calls for $1B “divorce” bet
• Bessent and Brian Armstrong both say it’s time to pass the Clarity Act
• WLFI falls 10% after team reveals using 5B tokens to borrow $75M

🌎 Bitcoin breaks $73K on ceasefire hopes, STRC

Bitcoin topped $73,000 briefly on Thursday, per data from CoinMarketCap, reversing an early sell-off after Netanyahu signaled Lebanon negotiations. It bounced off that level and is holding just above $72K this morning.

The Bitcoin options market is even more bullish. Data shows that the $80,000 level is seeing the most volume in June expiry contracts with over $1.6B in open interest, a full 10% move from current levels.

As for why traders are bullish—well, it could be Saylor-driven. Strategy's STRC had another massive day Thursday with over 3M preferred shares moved, generating capital to purchase 2,000+ Bitcoin ($144M). Wednesday’s numbers were similar, and the totals historically rise into the dividend cutoff date (next Wednesday). So expect 3 more days of increasing STRC flows.

It’s a strong setup for Bitcoin near-term.

Key Details:

• Bitcoin topped $73,000 Thursday, up ~9% over the past month as crypto decouples from software stocks, which are down 12% over the same stretch
• June $80K Bitcoin options showing $1.6B in open interest, most concentrated target
• Saylor’s STRC moved 3M shares, enough to buy $144M in Bitcoin; on pace for well over $300M in purchases this week

📊 Galaxy profit rockets, stock jumps

The headline number from Galaxy’s 2025 annual report, a $241M net loss, buried the more important one: The firm’s Digital Assets segment generated $505M in adjusted gross profit.

GLXY closed up 11.3% Thursday, second-best crypto equity on the day.

The thesis Mike Novogratz is selling isn’t a crypto trading story anymore. It’s AI infrastructure. Galaxy’s Helios campus, once one of North America’s largest Bitcoin mines, is an 800-megawatt facility fully leased to CoreWeave that's beginning to generate compute revenue in 2026. “The most consequential shift right now is the move from narrative to infrastructure,” he wrote.

That pivot from BTC mining to AI is clearly paying off…

Key Details:

• Galaxy posted a $241M 2025 net loss driven by unrealized losses and one-time costs; core Digital Assets segment generated $505M in adjusted gross profit
• GLXY closed up 11.3% at $21.15; total assets on platform hit $12B with $2B in net inflows during 2025
• The Helios play: 800MW Texas facility fully leased to CoreWeave; AI compute revenue begins 2026; Galaxy is pitching itself as half crypto financial firm, half AI infrastructure company

🦅 Gemini is on sale, but nobody wants the whole thing

Potential buyers are circling Gemini, but not in the way the Winklevoss twins might want.

Per CoinDesk, interested parties are evaluating an acquisition of Gemini’s shuttered EU and UK operations specifically to obtain MiCA and FCA regulatory licenses. Nobody is pursuing a full takeover.

The backdrop is stark. Gemini IPO’d at $28 in September 2025 and now trades around $4.70, down 83%. The company cut 25% of its workforce in February, exited the EU, UK, and Australia, lost three senior executives, and faces a shareholder class-action lawsuit filed in March.

GEMI stock jumped 11% on the acquisition reports, but has already shed some of those gains.

Key Details:

• Potential buyers are circling Gemini’s shuttered EU and UK operations for MiCA and FCA licenses; no full takeover interest
• The distress context: $28 IPO September 2025, now $4.70 (down 83%); 25% workforce cut; exited EU/UK/Australia; three executives departed; class-action lawsuit filed March 2026
• MiCA wrinkle: license doesn’t transfer in an acquisition; change of control triggers full regulatory reassessment; buyers face scrutiny equivalent to a new applicant

⚖️ Bessent to the Senate: Pass the Clarity Act

Treasury Secretary Bessent made his most direct push yet Thursday, urging the Senate to pass the Clarity Act and resolve the stablecoin yield dispute still stalling the bill.

This comes just one day after the White House Council of Economic Advisors mathematically dismantled the banking lobby’s core argument, finding a yield ban would boost lending by just $2.1B, a 0.02% increase.

The only remaining variable is whether Senate Democrats and holdout Republicans will accept a stablecoin yield framework that Coinbase can live with.

And we may have gotten a signal from Brian Armstrong last night, who tweeted “It’s time to pass the Clarity Act” in union with Bessent.

Key Details:

• Bessent urged the Senate to pass the Clarity Act, calling for resolution on stablecoin yield provisions; follows the White House CEA report that undercut the banking lobby’s deposit-flight argument
• What’s left: Senate Banking Committee markup; stablecoin yield language is the last unlock for the full US crypto regulatory stack
• Odds of the Clarity Act passing in 2026 rose 3% to 59% on Thursday

🤖 Florida goes after OpenAI

Florida AG James Uthmeier launched a formal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT Thursday, citing the chatbot’s alleged role in the April 2025 FSU mass shooting that killed two people, child safety concerns, and the risk of OpenAI data reaching the Chinese government.

The quote Uthmeier posted to announce it is the week’s most ironic AI headline: “AI should advance mankind, not destroy it.”

The investigation arrives as AI infrastructure, specifically data centers, are coming under attack. Per Bloomberg and Sightline Climate, 30-50% of the data centers planned to come online this year are facing delays or outright cancellations. Of the 12 gigawatts of capacity announced for 2026, only a third is currently under construction. Bernie Sanders and AOC introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act in March to stop all new construction until federal safeguards are in place. It’s not going anywhere, but it signals the political mood around AI is shifting.

Key Details:

• Florida AG Uthmeier launched a formal OpenAI investigation, citing ChatGPT’s alleged role in the 2025 FSU shooting, child safety, and CCP data concerns; subpoenas forthcoming; arrives as OpenAI eyes a $1T IPO
• 30-50% of US data centers planned for 2026 are facing delays or cancellations per Sightline Climate
• The political pressure: Sanders and AOC introduced the AI Data Center Moratorium Act in March, calling for a full construction halt until federal safeguards are in place; fringe bill, real signal

🌎 Macro crypto and markets

• Crypto majors are slightly green; BTC +1% at $72.1k; ETH +1% at $2,210; SOL +2% at $84; HYPE +5% at $41
• DEXE (+30%), ZEC (+20%), and MON (+20%) led top movers
• Oil -3% at $94; Gold even at $4,764
• The Bitcoin options market is showing concentration at the $80,000 price level for June expiry contracts with over $1.6B in open interest
• Treasury Secretary Bessent urged the Senate to pass the Clarity Act, pushing for resolution on stablecoin yield provisions still stalling the bill
• The Treasury will share cybersecurity intelligence with crypto firms, giving the industry access to the same threat data distributed to traditional financial institutions
• Former SEC official Brett Redfearn joined Securitize as president ahead of the BlackRock-backed tokenization firm’s anticipated public listing
• Binance founder CZ got into a public dispute with OKX founder Star, escalating to the point that CZ bet Star $1B that he is “officially divorced” from Binance

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• Bitcoin ETFs saw $343M in net inflows on Thursday; the ETH ETFs had $85M in net inflows
• STRC traded enough volume yesterday to raise capital for 2,000+ BTC in buy pressure
• TD Securities cut Strategy’s price target on dilution concerns while initiating a buy on Ethereum treasury firm SharpLink
• BitMine uplisted to the NYSE and expanded its buyback program to $4B

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were slightly green; DOGE +1%, SHIB +1%, PEPE +1%, TRUMP -2%, PENGU +4%, SPX +5%, FARTCOIN +2%
• SBTI (25x), triplet (+102%), chillguy (+32%), and hodl (+38%) led notable onchain movers

💰 Token, airdrop & protocol Tracker

• Tether released its QVAC SDK, a toolkit enabling AI apps to run locally on devices without cloud servers, extending Tether’s push into AI infrastructure
• Nunchuk released open-source tools letting AI agents interact with Bitcoin wallets via multi-sig, without giving agents unilateral control over funds
• DeFi lender Sky is restructuring its products to pursue a formal credit rating, targeting institutional capital as DeFi protocols push further into TradFi
• Binance enabled prediction market trading in-app via Predict.fun, giving 240M+ users direct access to event contracts as the CFTC battles states over federal jurisdiction
• WLFI fell 10% after the team revealed that it borrowed $75M against 5B tokens

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly flat again; Punks -1% at 28 ETH, Pudgy -1 at 4.2 ETH, BAYC even at 6.39 ETH; Hypurr’s +!% at 392 HYPE
• Nouns (+69%) and Kodas (+13%) led notable movers

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