Morning Minute: Saylor Gains Access to Another $44B to Buy Bitcoin

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 grind higher, SOL leads; BTC +1% astatine $71k
• Saylor gets entree to different $42B+ successful MSTR and STRC ATM programs
• Congressmen present bipartisan measure banning sports betting successful pred markets
• Polymarket introduces referral programme and caller interest structure
• Elizabeth Warren comes aft Mr. Beast’s caller banking app and imaginable crypto necktie in

₿ Strategy Unveils a $44B Equity Plan to Buy More Bitcoin

Strategy said it tin present contented $44 cardinal successful further equity to money aboriginal Bitcoin purchases, divided crossed $21 cardinal of communal banal (MSTR), $21 cardinal of STRC, and $2.1 cardinal of STRK.

The determination is designed to support feeding Strategy’s Bitcoin-buying machine, adjacent arsenic the gait of purchases concisely slowed.

Notably, STRC accounts for astir fractional of the full authorization. The institution precocious boosted STRC’s monthly dividend to 11.5%, starring to a spike successful request that helped substance Saylor’s ample buys earlier this month.

Bitcoin did not respond to the news, holding astatine $70,500 connected the day.

Key Details

• Strategy tin contented $44B successful caller equity.
• The authorization includes $21B MSTR, $21B STRC, and $2.1B STRK.
• STRC has enabled Strategy to rise much than $1.5B this month.

🏛 Congress Moves to Ban Sports Bets connected Prediction Markets

The Wall Street Journal reported that lawmakers are preparing a bipartisan measure to prohibition sports betting connected prediction marketplace platforms.

That would straight people 1 of the fastest-growing usage cases for firms similar Kalshi and Polymarket, some of which person pushed aggressively into sports-related markets.

For discourse of however large this is, Kalshi's play sports measurement makes up 70-85% of its full grip and Polymarket's sports measurement is 35-40% of its total.

And the timing is notable, with Kalshi caller disconnected the quality of its latest $22B fundraise.

State gaming regulators reason these products are sports betting and should beryllium treated similar gambling. The platforms reason they are federally regulated lawsuit contracts and beryllium nether derivatives oversight instead.

Congress present appears acceptable to trial that question straight with legislation.

Key Details

• WSJ reported the measure would beryllium bipartisan and would people sports bets connected prediction markets, not the full category.
• Kalshi’s sports measurement makes up 70-85% of its full measurement crossed platforms.
• The timing is notable due to the fact that prediction markets person conscionable had a large momentum streak, with ample caller partnerships, rising volumes, and caller private-market funding.

🕵️ Polymarket and Kalshi Make Series of Announcements

It was a engaged time for prediction markets, beyond the WSJ study of the caller bipartisan bill.

Polymarket antecedently hyped a large announcement coming Monday, and it delivered…a new referral program. They besides bundled successful a new interest structure, varying by marketplace assemblage and probability with a highest interest of 1.8% (for crypto markets).

Polymarket besides updated its insider-trading rules and emphasized a “multi-layered monitoring system” for suspicious activity, portion Kalshi has besides been tightening controls arsenic the assemblage faces much governmental and regulatory attention.

Kalshi is banning athletes, coaches and politicians from betting connected their ain markets successful an effort to forestall insider trading.

And Polymarket precocious said it is moving with Palantir to physique surveillance systems for sports-focused prediction markets.

Key Details

• Polymarket’s caller referral programme includes traders >$10k successful measurement and volition see up to 30% rewards
• Polymarket’s caller interest operation varies by marketplace benignant and peaks astatine 1.8%
• Kalshi banned athletes, coaches and politicians from trading

🏀 Coinbase Users Blast March Madness Push Notifications

Coinbase users complained aft receiving repeated March Madness propulsion notifications encouraging them to marque sports-related predictions. The backlash connected X got ample capable to go a trending topic, with aggregate users arguing the notifications felt much similar sports-gambling ads than a mean crypto speech experience.

Coinbase’s app homepage was prominently featuring March Madness promotion astatine the apical of the screen, portion immoderate users said they were getting respective notifications a day.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong replied that the disapproval was “a just point” and said much customization options would beryllium added.

Key Details

• Users complained astir receiving aggregate propulsion notifications per day.
• Coinbase’s app homepage was besides featuring a March Madness advertisement prominently.
• Armstrong responded publically and promised much customization options.

🧒 Elizabeth Warren Presses MrBeast Over Crypto successful a Teen Banking App

Senator Elizabeth Warren is pressing Beast Industries implicit whether crypto could beryllium pushed done Step, the teen-focused banking app tied to MrBeast.

Warren sent a 12-page missive focused connected Step’s erstwhile crypto enactment and raised concerns astir however a ample younker assemblage could beryllium exposed if crypto features returned.

Step had antecedently marketed itself arsenic the archetypal U.S. level to fto teens, with parental consent, bargain integer assets specified arsenic Bitcoin, and aboriginal expanded that entree to dozens of crypto assets and NFTs.

Key Details

• Warren’s missive is 12 pages agelong and focuses heavy connected Step’s anterior crypto activity.
• Step antecedently fto teens bargain crypto with parental consent.
• Beast Industries precocious received a $200M concern from BitMine.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are somewhat greenish aft yesterday’s large bounce; BTC +1% astatine $71k; ETH +2% astatine $2,165; SOL +3% astatine $92
• APT (+12%), TAO (+11%), and ZRO (+8%) led apical movers
• Oil held dependable astatine $90; Gold besides level astatine $4,410
• Nasdaq partnered with organization crypto infra steadfast Talos to link crypto trading and hazard tools with its Calypso platform, the aforesaid strategy banks and funds usage to negociate collateral and surveillance crossed stocks and bonds
• Former Kalshi employees are raising $35M for a caller prediction marketplace task fund, backed by some the Kalshi and Polymarket CEOs
• ParaFi Capital raised $125M for a caller task money focused connected stablecoins, tokenization, and organization on-chain finance

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $167M successful nett inflows on Monday, though the ETH ETFs had $16M successful nett outflows
• Strategy bought different 1,031 BTC for ~$76.6M astatine a ~$74,326 average
• BitMine added 65,341 ETH past week, pushing its full holdings to 4.66 cardinal ETH worthy $10.17B

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were mixed; DOGE +2%, SHIB +1%, PEPE +1%, TRUMP flat, PENGU flat, SPX -1%, FARTCOIN -3%
• 7 Wanderers (+75x), Punch (+50%), LOL (+40%) and testicle (+33%) led apical movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Polymarket introduced a caller referral programme with 30% rewards for nonstop referrals and 10% for indirect and hinted astatine eligibility for "all aboriginal rewards" along with a caller interest structure for its markets
• MoonPay released its OpenWallet Standard as unfastened source, a unified protocol that lets AI agents grip keys, wallets, and transaction signing crossed each large blockchains
• The Backpack Exchange token launched yesterday, opening astatine $400M FDV earlier falling to $200M; Mad Lads received a BP token airdrop
• Balancer Labs is winding down six months aft a November exploit drained $128M crossed six blockchains successful 30 minutes from its V2 Vault contract

🚚 What is happening successful NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly mixed; Punks -3% astatine 28.5 ETH, Pudgy +1% astatine 4.15 ETH, BAYC +4% astatine 5.35 ETH; Hypurr’s +1% astatine 405 HYPE
• Normies (+60%) led notable movers
• Pudgy World officially lau