Morning Minute: Bitcoin Rips as Iran Strikes Postponed

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 soar after Trump announces 5-day postponement of Iran strikes; BTC at $70k
• Congress to introduce bipartisan bill banning sports betting on prediction markets
• Senators reach agreement on Clarity Act yield dispute in major hurdle cleared
• Hyperliquid sees over $100M in volume on S&P 500 index
• Gemini sued by stakeholders for misleading pivot into prediction markets

📈 Bitcoin Rips as Iran Strikes Postponed

One single headline and everything has turned.

Going into this weekend, crypto was getting hammered. Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum Saturday night – reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on Iranian power plants. Bitcoin slid from $76,000 to below $68,500, longs got liquidated, and the Fear and Greed Index hit Extreme fear.

Then this morning, Trump announced he’s postponing those strikes by five days – and Bitcoin ripped.

Bitcoin immediately jumped $2,000 per token to $70,800. ETH jumped 5% to $2,170.

The Dow jumped 1000 points premarket and Oil fell off a cliff, down 8% to $90.

Of course, five days is not peace and Trump says he’s still prepared to strike. Iran hasn’t reopened the Strait. This is just a pause, not resolution and the situation remains very volatile.

But we may have just gotten a glimpse of what will happen as soon as the Iran War ends for good.

Key Details

• Trump announced he has had good discussions with Iran and is postponing strikes for 5 days
• BTC jumps 3.5% to $70,800 and ETH +4.5% to $2,170
• Oil falls 8% to $90

🏛 Senators and the White House Reach a Deal on Stablecoin Yield

On Friday, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks said they had reached an agreement in principle with the White House on the stablecoin yield issue — the main fight that has stalled the Clarity Act since January.

According to the reported framework, passive yield on stablecoin balances would be banned, meaning users would not be able to hold something like USDC and earn interest in a savings-account style format. However, activity-based rewards appear likely to remain allowed.

That was enough to move prediction market odds sharply. Odds of the Clarity Act passing in 2026 jumped to about 70% on Friday.

Key Details

• Passive yield on stablecoin balances would reportedly be banned
• Activity-based rewards appear likely to survive
• The stablecoin yield fight had been the biggest obstacle holding up the Clarity Act

📈 Hyperliquid’s S&P 500 Market Hit $100M in a Single Day

Hyperliquid’s newly launched S&P 500 perpetual futures market topped $100 million in 24-hour volume by the weekend, quickly becoming one of the platform’s most actively traded markets.

The product launched last week as an official S&P 500 perp, licensed through Trade XYZ, settled in USDC, and tradable 24/7. That means users can now trade leveraged S&P 500 exposure onchain without a traditional brokerage account.

Five of Hyperliquid’s top 10 markets over the weekend were crypto with the other half represented by oil, precious metals (gold, silver) and the S&P.

Key Details

• S&P 500 perps crossed $100M in 24-hour volume
• The market was already a top-10 market on the platform by the weekend
• Oil, gold, silver, and the S&P 500 are now among the platform’s most traded products

🤖 Eightco Doubles Down on OpenAI While Its Stock Sits Down 93%

Eightco Holdings, which trades on Nasdaq under ORBS, added another $40 million to its OpenAI position, bringing its total OpenAI exposure to $90 million. That now represents about 30% of the company’s treasury.

What makes the update more notable is who just backed them. Last week, Eightco raised $125 million from BitMine, Ark Invest, and Kraken parent Payward, with Tom Lee also joining the board.

Eightco has now deployed $90 million into OpenAI and hold nearly 10% of all WLD tokens in circulation plus 11,000 ETH.

And now BitMine has exposure to OpenAI.

Key Details

• Eightco’s OpenAI position now totals $90M
• The company raised $125M last week from BitMine, Ark, and Payward
• Eightco also holds nearly 10% of all WLD in circulation plus 11,000 ETH

⚖️ Gemini Shareholders Are Suing the Winklevoss Twins

A class action lawsuit was filed Friday in the Southern District of New York accusing Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of misleading investors ahead of Gemini’s IPO last fall.

The suit alleges Gemini overstated the durability of its core exchange business while failing to disclose plans to pivot more aggressively into prediction markets. In February, Gemini cut 30% of staff, exited Europe and Australia, and said prediction markets were now the company’s main strategic focus.

The company did report one positive development this week: Q4 services revenue overtook trading revenue for the first time. But the stock gave back most of its post-earnings bounce and closed Friday at $5.66.

Key Details

• Plaintiffs claim Gemini failed to disclose a coming shift away from its exchange business
• Gemini laid off 30% of staff and exited Europe and Australia in February
• GEMI is down about 85% since the IPO and the company posted a $582M net loss for 2025

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were green in line with majors; DOGE +2%, SHIB +5%, PEPE +3%, TRUMP +2%, PENGU +3%, SPX +3%, FARTCOIN -1%
• LOL (+30%), buttcoin (+20%) and testicle (+20%) let top movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Polymarket teased a major announcement coming later today
• LetsBonk has stormed back in the memecoin race, doing $50M in 24-hour volume over the weekend compared to Pump Fun’s $100M
• Resolv Labs faced an exploit on Sunday wehre $50M worth of USR was minted without collateral
• SIREN jumped 85% to $2B in a massive weekend run

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks +3% at 29.4 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 4.12 ETH, BAYC -1% at 5.15 ETH; Hypurr’s -8% at 400 HYPE
• Normies (+20%) and Tatsu (+13%) led notable movers