Morning Minute: Crypto VC Haun Raises $1B Despite Market Slump

Morning Minute is simply a regular newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The investigation and opinions expressed are his ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of Decrypt. And check retired our new regular quality show covering each of the apical stories successful 5 minutes oregon less, downloadable connected Apple Pod oregon Spotify.

GM!

Today’s apical news:

• Crypto majors up 2-5%, Hype leads; Bitcoin astatine $81,000
• BTC ETFs spot $1.15B successful nett inflows implicit past 2 sessions
• DTCC to statesman tokenized banal trading successful July
• WLFI countersues Justin Sun stating helium suppressed the token price
• Telegram to regenerate TON Foundation arsenic largest validator and operator of TON (TON +30%)

💰 Haun Ventures Raises $1B Against a Cooling Crypto VC Market

Katie Haun closed $1 cardinal for 2 caller funds Monday, astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile crypto task superior is successful a genuine slump.

April 2026 saw conscionable $659 cardinal successful crypto VC backing crossed 63 deals, a 74% driblet from March and the lowest monthly fig since July 2024. Year-to-date 2026 crypto VC stands astatine $5.64 billion, inactive reasonably important but down sharply from the gait acceptable successful 2025 (on the backmost of mega-rounds from Binance, Polymarket, and Kalshi). Monthly backing has declined each period since October 2025’s $3.84 cardinal peak, tracking a 37% contraction successful planetary crypto marketplace headdress implicit the aforesaid period.

Against that backdrop, Haun Ventures raising $1 billion is notable. The steadfast is 1 of the lone crypto-native funds to turn counter-cyclically—AUM has climbed from $1 cardinal to $2.5 cardinal portion Paradigm, Pantera, and a16z crypto person each seen AUM shrink since 2025’s peak. The returns warrant the confidence. Haun’s archetypal money backed Bridge astatine a $100 cardinal valuation earlier Stripe acquired it for $1.1 billion, and invested successful BVNK astatine $678 cardinal earlier Mastercard acquired it for $1.8 billion—the largest stablecoin acquisition to date. The thesis crossed some exits: stablecoin infrastructure would go indispensable fiscal plumbing, and the acquirers would beryllium incumbent payments companies, not different crypto firms.

The caller funds grow that thesis to AI agents. Haun’s statement is that AI agents volition request regulated fiscal infrastructure to operate: wallets, outgo rails, compliance layers, and the firms that built stablecoin rails are champion positioned to physique it. The fund’s largest existent stake is Erebor, Palmer Luckey’s federally insured integer slope astatine a $4.35 cardinal valuation, designed from the crushed up to service AI and defence exertion companies alternatively than retail consumers. Haun was wide she isn’t pivoting: “We’re not becoming an AI fund. But AI agents volition request regulated fiscal plumbing, and the firms that built stablecoin infrastructure are champion positioned to physique it.”

📈 Strive Crosses 15,000 BTC, Now the 9th Largest Corporate Bitcoin Holder

Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) disclosed Monday that it crossed 15,000 BTC successful its treasury after purchasing 444 BTC for $33.9 cardinal astatine an mean outgo of $76,307.

The steadfast present sits 9th among nationalist firm Bitcoin holders, wrong striking region of Riot (15,680 BTC) and Coinbase (15,389 BTC). As of May 1, Strive besides held $97.9 cardinal successful currency and $50.4 cardinal successful Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, giving it a layered Bitcoin vulnerability play crossed some nonstop holdings and structured products.

Strive describes itself arsenic “the archetypal publically traded plus absorption Bitcoin treasury company” and measures show by Bitcoin per stock alternatively than earnings. YTD BTC output of 18.7% is its superior header metric. CEO Matt Cole has centered the steadfast astir what helium calls “digital credit,” structured concern products generating output done Bitcoin exposure, anchored by its SATA preferred stock.

Digital credit—a conception Michael Saylor himself is “striving” for…

💸 DTCC Looks to Bridge TradFi and DeFi via Tokenization

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation which processed $4.7 quadrillion successful securities transactions past twelvemonth and custodies $114 trillion successful assets, announced it volition statesman unrecorded tokenized securities trades successful July, with a afloat commercialized motorboat successful October.

The work tokenizes DTC-custodied assets including Russell 1000 stocks, large ETFs, and US Treasuries, portion preserving each existing ineligible protections, ownership rights, and entitlements. The underlying assets enactment successful DTC custody.

What changes is the form: a holder gets a blockchain token that mirrors the existent happening and tin determination crossed integer networks successful ways bequest systems cannot. DTCC received its SEC no-action missive successful December, covering a defined acceptable of assets connected pre-approved blockchains, truthful it should beryllium successful the clear.

The Industry Working Group gathering the work includes Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, Ondo Finance, and Fireblocks—the broadest conjugation of TradFi and crypto-native firms assembled astir a azygous tokenization initiative. DTCC CEO Frank La Salla: “Our imaginativeness is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization work and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi.”

🚩The Trump Crypto Lawsuit Is Now a Two-Front War

World Liberty Financial filed a defamation suit against Justin Sun successful Florida authorities tribunal connected Monday, a antagonistic to the national fraud suit Sun filed against WLFI successful California past month.

The ineligible dispute, which started arsenic a frozen token disagreement, has escalated into a multi-front warfare involving allegations of marketplace manipulation, hidden astute declaration controls, straw purchases, and a coordinated short-selling campaign.

WLFI’s halfway allegation: Sun-affiliated wallets moved $300 cardinal to Binance astatine the infinitesimal WLFI launched for nationalist trading successful September 2025, executing what the institution calls “a large, deliberate, short-selling run designed to suppress $WLFI’s price” astatine launch. WLFI says it froze Sun’s 2.9 cardinal tokens to forestall further harm—and that Sun agreed to the frost mechanics successful his archetypal concern contract. After the freeze, Sun began publically calling WLFI a “scam,” accusing the squad of embedding concealed “backdoors” successful astute contracts, and allegedly privately threatening that his suit would “light World Liberty connected fire.” WLFI is seeking damages and a nationalist retraction.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are green, up 1-4%; BTC +3% astatine $81k; ETH +2% astatine $2,380; SOL +1% astatine $85; HYPE +6% astatine $43.7
• TON (+33%), Morpho (+13%), and ZRO (+8%) led apical movers
• Oil -1% astatine $104; Gold -0.3% astatine $4,40
• Stock futures are somewhat greenish arsenic treasury yields ease, ships walk successful Hormuz
• GameStop submitted a non-binding $55.5 cardinal connection to get eBay at $125/share, 50% cash, 50% GME stock, with $20B successful TD Bank financing and $9.4B successful currency connected hand; CEO Ryan Cohen’s transportation is that eBay nether tighter outgo controls becomes “a legit rival to Amazon”
• Kraken genitor Payward completed its $550 cardinal acquisition of Bitnomial Monday, securing each 3 CFTC licenses (DCM, DCO, and FCM), making it the lone crypto-native steadfast with the afloat US derivatives stack
• Bullish announced that it’s going to tokenize its full headdress array contiguous astatine Consensus, and past also announced an acquisition of Equiniti for $4.2B

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw a monolithic $530M successful nett inflows on Monday, meaning $1.15B implicit the past 2 sessions; the ETH ETFs saw $61M successful inflows
• Strategy skipped its play Bitcoin purchase, lone the 2nd intermission of 2026, up of Q1 net Tuesday
• Bitmine disclosed 5.18 cardinal ETH successful holdings Monday, present with 84% staked generating $297M successful annualized revenue

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were green; DOGE +1%, SHIB +1%, PEPE +2%, PENGU +11%, TRUMP +1%, BONK +4%, SPX +8%, FARTCOIN +3%
• Chud (+60%), Buttcoin (+20%), Chillguy(+10%) and unc (+10%) led notable movers; Cards +20% arsenic well

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Telegram will replace the TON Foundation arsenic largest validator and operator of TON, per laminitis Pavel
• Polygon Labs added shielded stablecoin payments in its wallet, wherever users tin “privately send” USDC and USDT

🚚 What is happening successful NFTs?

• NFT leaders are somewhat reddish connected the day; Punks adjacent astatine 31 ETH, BAYC -1% astatine 10.67 ETH, Pudgy -4% astatine 5.38 ETH; Hypurr’s -1% astatine 349 HYPE
• AKCB (+25%), A Gift of Time (+15%) and CloneX (+12%) led notable movers