Morning Minute: Saylor’s $2.54B Purchase Buoys Bitcoin

Morning Minute is a every day publication written by Tyler Warner. The evaluation and opinions expressed are his personal and don’t essentially mirror these of Decrypt. And check out our new every day information present overlaying all the high tales in 5 minutes or much less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

At present’s high information:

• Crypto majors proceed grind up, led by Bitcoin; BTC +2% at $76,480
• Saylor buys $2.54B in BTC, third largest purchase ever; 85% powered by STRC
• AAVE publishes full incident report; losses vary $120M-$230M
• Curve founder pushes for shared safety requirements throughout DeFi
• Polymarket elevating $400M at $15B valuation, behind Kalshi’s $22B

🟠 Saylor Simply Made His Third-Largest Bitcoin Purchase Ever

Technique bought 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion final week – its largest single-week purchase in over 16 months and third largest in firm historical past behind two November 2024 purchases.

Saylor’s Technique now holds 815,061 BTC acquired for $61.56 billion at a median value of $75,527. With BTC round $76K, the whole treasury is again within the inexperienced.

STRC did the heavy lifting once more this week, as $2.18 billion of the $2.54 billion got here from STRC most popular inventory gross sales. And notably, that is the week Saylor additionally proposed transferring STRC dividends to semi-monthly.

The thesis: a extra secure STRC value means the inventory trades nearer to par for longer, which implies extra issuance capability, which implies extra Bitcoin. And with Saylor now even 15% of the best way by means of his newest $50B ATM, anticipate the Bitcoin shopping for to proceed. In measurement.

Key Particulars:

• Technique bought 34,164 BTC for $2.54 billion final week – third-largest single-week buy in firm historical past; holdings now at 815,061 BTC at a median value of $75,527; BTC yield 9.5% YTD
• The funding: $2.18 billion raised by way of STRC most popular inventory gross sales; $366 million from MSTR frequent inventory; 85.7% STRC-funded
• The place issues stand: 815,061 BTC at ~$75K = roughly breakeven on $61.56 billion invested; Saylor’s said aim is 1 million BTC by finish of 2026; $1.62B in STRF capability and $26.73B in MSTR ATM capability nonetheless obtainable

🔵 Tom Lee Isn’t Sweating The Kelp Dip

Tom Lee’s Bitmine disclosed Monday that it bought 101,627 ETH for $235 million final week, its largest single-week ETH acquisition of 2026. On a market cap adjusted foundation, that purchase is equal to Saylor shopping for $1.35B in Bitcoin. It’s a giant buy.

Bitmine’s whole holdings are actually at 4.976 million ETH, representing 4.12% of whole circulating provide, and is now 82% of the best way to its self-declared “5% alchemy” goal.

Tom Lee commented: “While many believe the crypto winter may last through the fall of 2026, our view remains that the crypto winter is much closer to ending.”

He cited ETH being up 41% from its early February lows as proof, and referred to as it “the best wartime store of value.” He additionally famous ETH advantages from two tailwinds concurrently: institutional tokenization flows and demand from agentic AI programs that want a impartial public ledger.

We’ll see if that bull case certainly performs out for ETH the token, however no less than Tom is doing his half to assist.

🎯 Polymarket Is Elevating $400M at $15B, Now Chasing Kalshi

Polymarket is in talks to boost $400 million at a $15 billion valuation, Bloomberg and The Info reported Monday.

The spherical might develop to $1 billion with extra strategic buyers past NYSE mother or father ICE, which accomplished its $600M tranche final month bringing whole ICE dedication to $1.6 billion.

Notably, Kalshi simply raised $1 billion at $22 billion, practically 50% increased, and leads on each quantity ($13B vs Polymarket’s $10.57B) and income (estimated $1.5B yearly). Traditionally, these 2 prediction market giants have carried out raises in keeping with one another. This is able to be the primary time Kalshi seemingly has pulled forward. Apparently, Kalshi being the US regulated physique (vs Polymarket nonetheless not dwell within the US) is the differentiator.

🔴 Aave Replace: Contained, However Not Resolved

Aave printed its full incident report on Monday. The image is extra contained than Saturday’s panic steered, however removed from closed. And potential losses now vary from $120M to $230M.

Right here’s how the exploit went down: the attacker cast a LayerZero packet (nonce 308) accepted by Kelp’s single-DVN bridge with no corresponding burn on Unichain releasing 116,500 rsETH. Then 89,567 of that ended up on Aave as collateral throughout 7 wallets, which borrowed 82,650 WETH and 821 wstETH in opposition to it. All 7 attacker positions presently sit at well being elements between 1.01 and 1.03 and haven’t been liquidated but.

The important thing drawback is that the adapter that backs all remote-chain rsETH throughout each L2 presently holds solely 40,373 rsETH, in opposition to whole distant claims of 152,577. That’s a 112,204 rsETH hole.

How Kelp socializes the losses determines how dangerous this will get for Aave. If the haircut is unfold throughout all rsETH holders globally, the token depegs roughly 15% and Aave absorbs round $124M in dangerous debt. If losses are remoted to the affected L2 chains as a substitute, the influence concentrates on Arbitrum and Mantle and Aave’s dangerous debt swells to roughly $230M.

Aave is working eventualities however can’t shut the e book till Kelp makes a public resolution. Thus the holding sample continues, and sadly, confidence in these protocols is seemingly dropping by the hour…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are very inexperienced; BTC +2% at $76.5k; ETH +1% at $2,320; SOL +1% at $86; HYPE -1% at $40.90
• XLM (+8%), ZEC (+8%), and XMR (+6%) led high movers
• Oil -1% at $87; Gold even at $4,790
• Inventory futures are inexperienced once more after falling barely on Monday
• Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov is pushing for shared safety requirements throughout DeFi following a wave of exploits he says stem from avoidable centralization dangers like single-verifier bridge setups
• Arbitrum’s Safety Council voted to freeze 30,766 ETH (~$71.5M) tied to the Kelp DAO exploit; the funds had been moved to a protocol-controlled middleman pockets on April 20 earlier than the attacker might bridge them again to ETH mainnet
• Ripple printed a four-phase roadmap Monday to make the XRP Ledger quantum-resistant by 2028; lively testing of NIST-standardized post-quantum algorithms begins in H1 2026
• Coinbase launched Bitcoin and Ethereum-backed loans for UK customers, permitting clients to borrow in opposition to their crypto holdings with out promoting their positions
• Coinbase and Bybit are reportedly working collectively on tokenization, custody, and international distribution of US public and pre-IPO shares; the plan is Coinbase offers US asset entry and compliance infrastructure, Bybit offers the worldwide distribution

Company Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders had been inexperienced on the day; DOGE +1%, SHIB +2%, PEPE +2%, TRUMP +2%, BONK +2%, PENGU +8%, SPX +10%, FARTCOIN +5%
• MAGA (+250%), Both (+25%), Perception (+20%), and unc (+30%) led notable movers
• Asteroid briefly offered off to $100M earlier than rebounding to $200M and a brand new ATH (now $170M)
• A federal choose dominated that Caitlyn Jenner’s $JENNER memecoin just isn’t a safety given there was no “common enterprise” when evaluating the Howey Check

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is going on in NFTs?

• NFT leaders had been largely even; Punks even at 26.6 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.26 ETH, BAYC +1% at 7.88 ETH; Hypurr’s even at 386 HYPE
• mfers (+19%) and Normies (+14%) led notable movers
• A Cranium of Luci offered for 166 ETH, a brand new file in ETH phrases