Category: Business

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 rally as Trump extends ceasefire indefinitely; BTC +2% at $78.3k
• Coinbase quantum report says ETH and SOL more at risk than Bitcoin
• Kalshi and Polymarket both tease perps launches on same day
• New York’s AG sued Coinbase and Gemini over their prediction market products
• USD AI’s CHIP token debuts and soars to $800M fdv

📈 Bitcoin Hits 11-Week High as Trump Extends Iran Ceasefire Indefinitely

Bitcoin climbed above $78,000 Wednesday morning, its highest level in 11 weeks, after President Trump announced he would extend the Iran ceasefire indefinitely, reversing his earlier statement that it would expire Wednesday.

Trump cited Tehran’s government as “seriously fractured,” and said the extension would remain in place until Iran’s leadership submits a “unified proposal” to end the war. The announcement came after Iran refused to send negotiators to a second round of talks in Islamabad and reports surfaced that Vice President Vance’s planned trip to Pakistan had been put on hold.

Markets reacted quickly. BTC was up roughly 2.2% over 24 hours and 5% on the week by Wednesday morning, with short sellers caught on the wrong side – approximately $240 million in leveraged shorts were liquidated. ETH was up 3% to $2,390 on a solid day of ETF inflows ($43M). Stock futures are opening green as well.

On-chain signals are turning constructive for the first time in months. Bitcoin’s Net Unrealized Profit/Loss metric turned positive for the first time since early January, which analysts read as confirmation the bearish trend has ended. And whales are apparently accumulating at the fastest pace since July 2025.

Strong momentum starting to build for crypto’s flagship asset…

🏛️ Warsh Faces Senate Over Crypto Holdings, Fed Independence

Kevin Warsh appeared before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday for his confirmation hearing as Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair.

The hearing covered three main areas: his relationship with Trump on interest rates, his broader monetary policy views, and his financial disclosures (which include stakes in Solana, Polymarket, Tenderly, and other crypto and DeFi funds).

• On rates, Warsh said Trump “never asked me to predetermine, commit, fix, decide on any interest rate decision in any of our discussions, nor would I ever agree to do so.” He pushed back on suggestions he would simply cut rates on demand, calling himself an “independent actor” and saying he would “absolutely not” serve as anyone’s political instrument.
• On inflation, he said the trajectory is “improving, but there’s more work to do.” He wants a smaller Fed balance sheet, less reliance on quantitative easing, and fewer post-FOMC press conferences – noting that “truth-seeking is more important than repetition.”

Markets didn’t love it. The hawkish undertone sent crypto stocks lower. COIN fell 6%, HOOD 4.5%. BTC slid toward $75K.

But 21Shares research strategist Matt Mena argued the read may be too short-term. Warsh has spent years publicly arguing the Fed keeps rates too high based on lagging data, and his direct exposure to digital assets — he views bitcoin as “the new gold for people under 40” — makes him the most crypto-friendly Fed Chair nominee in history.

If he eases in H2 2026, analysts say that the liquidity environment could push BTC back toward $100K.

⚛️ Coinbase: Proof-of-Stake Has a Quantum Problem Bitcoin Doesn’t

Coinbase’s Independent Advisory Board published a quantum risk report Tuesday with a finding that’s getting less attention than BIP-361 but arguably matters more. And the concern impacts Ethereum and Solana the most.

Proof-of-stake chains like Ethereum and Solana use cryptographic signatures to secure consensus. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could break those signature schemes.

Unlike Bitcoin, where the quantum risk is primarily about exposed wallet public keys, PoS chains face an additional attack surface: the core consensus mechanism itself. Compromise one-third of Ethereum validators and the network can’t finalize transactions. Two-thirds and an attacker can rewrite chain history.

Coinbase’s board said plainly: “the challenge for proof-of-stake isn’t just upgrading wallets; parts of the core consensus mechanism itself may need to be redesigned.” No current quantum computer can do this, yet. But the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat means the planning window is now, not when Q-Day arrives.

📊 Kalshi and Polymarket Launch Perps

Kalshi announced on Tuesday that it’s planning to launch perpetual futures across crypto and other assets. By afternoon, Polymarket announced the same, saying “We’ve priced the future – now you can actually trade it.”

Incredible lockstep between these 2 prediction market giants, once again (even their announcement hype videos looked the same).

Kalshi’s launch is codenamed “Timeless,” goes live April 27 in New York, and starts with BTC perpetuals using USD as collateral. Kalshi’s edge here is leveraging its CFTC licenses and a margin trading approval secured last month.

Polymarket’s early-access waitlist is live at polymarket.com/perps, and they’re teasing perps across assets like BTC, NVDA, and gold with up to 10x leverage.

Notably, this comes at a time when the CME and Hyperliquid are leaning into launching prediction markets. It appears the prediction markets are fighting back…

🏴‍☠️ Scammers Are Charging Bitcoin for Hormuz Safe Passage

Who had crypto getting tied up in a Strait of Hormuz scam on their bingo card?

Greek maritime risk firm MARISKS warned Monday that unknown actors posing as Iranian authorities have been contacting shipping companies stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz, demanding Bitcoin or USDT in exchange for “transit clearance.”

The fraudulent messages told ships that Iranian Security Services will assess your eligibility, then pay the fee in BTC or USDT, and your vessel can transit at a pre-agreed time.

MARISKS said it believes at least one vessel paid the fraudulent fee—and then was fired on while attempting to transit anyway. The scam mirrors a real policy that Iran proposed back in March, that they’d charge BTC/USDT transit tolls of roughly $1 per barrel.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are very green after Trump extended the Iran ceasefire indefinitely; BTC +2% at $78.3k; ETH +3% at $2,390; SOL +3% at $88; HYPE flat at $41
• PENGU (+11%), M (+6%), and SKY (+5%) led top movers
• Oil +4% at $90; Gold -1% at $4,760
• Stock futures are green again, up 0.5%
• A four-star admiral and head of US Indo-Pacific Command told the Senate on Tuesday that Bitcoin has significant potential as a national security asset
• Tron founder Justin Sun filed a federal lawsuit against World Liberty Financial in California court Tuesday, alleging the Trump-backed project froze roughly $776 million worth of his WLFI tokens, stripped his voting rights, and threatened to burn his holdings after he declined to keep investing
• New York AG Letitia James sued Coinbase and Gemini Tuesday over their prediction market products, calling them illegal gambling operations under state law
• DoorDash will pay its delivery workers in stablecoins across 40+ countries using Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain, which launched its public mainnet in March
• Jefferies analyst Andrew Moss warned Tuesday that the $293M Kelp DAO exploit may prompt Wall Street firms to slow or pause their blockchain and tokenization plans as they reassess infrastructure risk

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were green on the day; DOGE +3%, SHIB +2%, PEPE +3%, TRUMP +4%, BONK +5%, PENGU +11%, SPX +10%, FARTCOIN +2%
• MAGA (+130%), Peace (+30%), Spike (+30%), and Cards (+30%) led notable movers
• Meteora’s MET token jumped 30% to $100M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• USD AI launched its CHIP token, which soared to $800M fdv in its debut
• AAVE has now seen $15B in outflows since the KelpDAO exploit
• MegaETH confirmed the 3 more apps are launching this week, meaning 9 of the 10 required to launch per their KPIs have launched (TGE coming after the 10th)

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were very green with Bored Apes leading the weay; Punks +5% at 28.1 ETH, Pudgy +5% at 4.46 ETH, BAYC +16% at 9.14 ETH; Hypurr’s even at 386 HYPE
• BAKC (+16%) and MAYC (+9%) led notable movers

Law firm Sullivan & Cromwell has admitted to a U.S. bankruptcy court that a recent filing in a high-profile case contained errors generated by artificial intelligence, including fabricated citations.

“We deeply regret that this has occurred,” Andrew Dietderich, the firm’s restructuring head, wrote to Judge Martin Glenn, saying the document included AI “hallucinations” that produced fictitious authorities and distorted existing ones.

The disclosure came in a letter to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, where the firm represents court-appointed liquidators from the British Virgin Islands. The mistakes appeared in an April 9 motion and the firm said its rules on AI use were not followed during preparation.

The case involves efforts by those liquidators to pursue claims tied to Prince Group and its owner, Chen Zhi. Prosecutors allege Chen directed scam compounds that targeted victims worldwide and have sought to recover billions of dollars in cryptocurrency they say is linked to the activity. He was detained earlier this year in Cambodia and later repatriated to China.

Through Chapter 15 proceedings in the U.S., the liquidators are seeking recognition of their authority to act on behalf of creditors and alleged victims. Prince Group, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, has been linked by U.S. authorities to large-scale fraud operations in Southeast Asia and sanctioned by the UK and U.S. governments.

According to a corrected submission, the April filing misstated case law in multiple places and included citations that did not support the propositions attributed to them, while some appeared to have no basis at all. The firm withdrew the original motion and has filed a revised version.

Lawyers for Prince Group and Chen at Boies Schiller Flexner initially identified the errors. They said language attributed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code could not be found and that several authorities were mischaracterized or misidentified. In one instance, they said, a cited case referred to a different decision in another circuit.

In a separate filing, defendants said at least 28 citations were erroneous, including quotations attributed to the court that do not exist. They argued the timing of the correction was prejudicial because the revised filing came after they had submitted objections, and asked the court to adjourn a scheduled hearing and hold a status conference.

Sullivan & Cromwell said its policies require lawyers to complete training before using AI tools and to independently verify all output.

“Before any Firm lawyer is granted access to generative AI tools, the lawyer must complete two required training modules, completion of which is tracked and verified. The training repeatedly emphasizes the risk of AI ‘hallucinations,’ including the fabrication of case citations, misinterpretation of authorities, and inaccurate quotations,” it said.

“It instructs lawyers to ‘trust nothing and verify everything’ and makes clear that failure to independently verify AI-generated output constitutes a violation of Firm policy.”

The firm said a broader review found additional minor drafting issues in other filings, which it attributed to human error rather than AI. It did not identify the lawyers who prepared the original motion.

AI in the dock

The incident adds to a growing list of AI-related missteps in legal practice as firms test tools designed to speed research and drafting. Courts have recently sanctioned or criticized lawyers for submitting filings with fabricated or inaccurate references produced by AI. In Australia, one lawyer was stripped of their ability to practise as a principal lawyer due to AI use last year.

Law schools are beginning to require instruction on the technology, while senior judges have warned that misuse could affect the integrity of proceedings.

Recent rulings have also addressed how AI fits within existing legal frameworks, including whether interactions with such tools are protected by privilege. At the same time, some courts are piloting AI systems to help manage heavy caseloads.

Justin Sun is taking the Trump family’s crypto venture to federal court.

The Tron founder filed suit Tuesday in California against World Liberty Financial, tweeting that the project froze his tokens, stripped his voting rights, and threatened to permanently destroy his holdings, without notice, cause, or recourse.

“They have left me with no choice but to turn to the courts,” Sun tweeted, noting that he does not believe U.S. President Donald Trump “would condone these actions if he knew about them.”

The case puts one of crypto’s most controversial investors on a collision course with one of the industry’s most politically connected projects.

Sun became World Liberty’s single largest token holder after spending $75 million on WLFI in late 2024.

Last September, World Liberty blacklisted his wallet after he appeared to move portions of his holdings, an action potentially prohibited under his investment terms, with Sun denying any intent to sell.

“All I want is to be treated the same as every other early investor who received tokens—no better, no worse,” he said Tuesday.

Decrypt has reached out to Sun and World Liberty Financial for comment.

Months-long feud

The dispute turned public earlier this month when Sun accused World Liberty of embedding a secret backdoor in the smart contract governing WLFI, allowing it to freeze any holder’s tokens without notice or recourse.

He labeled World Liberty’s leadership “bad actors,” accusing the project of treating “the crypto community as a personal ATM,” while the firm dismissed his claims as baseless.

Sun also opposed a new governance proposal imposing a two-year cliff and vesting schedule, saying frozen tokens prevent him from voting, as holders risk indefinite lock-ups if they don’t accept.

Experts told Decrypt that the case turns on the gap between how World Liberty marketed WLFI and what its smart contracts actually permit.

The defensibility weakens sharply “when a token is marketed as a decentralised ownership stake, but the contract grants an admin power to confiscate unilaterally,” Yuriy Brisov, Partner at Digital & Analogue Partners, told Decrypt. “Burying a function in bytecode is not disclosure.”

“The standard under both U.S. and EU consumer-protection law is ‘clear and conspicuous’—the power has to appear in the materials a reasonable investor actually reads, in plain language, before purchase,” he added.

Joshua Chu, lawyer and co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, told Decrypt that invoking AML and sanctions-type powers on-chain requires controls that are “transparent, rule-based and applied consistently, not selectively against a single controversial whale.”

Chu said it will be important to establish “whether there was a genuine law-enforcement or policy-based rationale behind the freeze, or whether this was a case of centralized discretion being exercised inside something that is marketed as DeFi.”

He added that WLFI is likely to hold its ground, saying, “I’d expect them to double down on a narrative that this was a contractual, risk-based compliance action, not arbitrary punishment.”

Even Alex Chandra, a partner at IGNOS Law Alliance, told Decrypt the court will likely ask whether investors were treated fairly and equally, or whether governance rights could be “unilaterally altered after a triggering event.”

“On paper, the same legal standards apply to WLFI as to any other issuer,” Brisov noted.

The real exposure for World Liberty, he said, lies in three areas: private civil litigation, state attorneys general with consumer-fraud authority operating independently of federal politics—New York and California in particular—and non-U.S. regulators deciding whether the token can be marketed in their jurisdictions.

WLFI token is currently trading at around $0.08, down nearly 76% from its September all-time high of $0.33, according to CoinGecko data.

Bitcoin has been on a steady uptrend in April, with shallow pullbacks, allowing altcoins to extend their gains.

Pudgy Penguins meme coin PENGU led altcoin gains, up 12.6% on the day, while Cosmos (ATOM), Aptos and Bitcoin Cash saw gains of over 5% over the past 24 hours.

The altcoin surge comes as Bitcoin hovers around $78,000, up nearly 2% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. If the bullish momentum persists, the leading crypto could revisit $80,000 for the first time in over two and a half months, analysts suggested.

“What we’re seeing right now is a mix of both early rotation and mechanically driven upside,” Wenny Cai, founder of Anchored Finance, told Decrypt. “There is some genuine capital moving out along the risk curve as Bitcoin consolidates, particularly into higher-beta majors and select narratives. But the velocity of the move suggests that short covering and leverage are amplifying it.”

As a result, almost $418 million in leveraged positions have been wiped out, with more than $286 million coming from bears or short sellers, suggesting these investors were caught off guard, per CoinGlass data.

Investor sentiment has flipped bullish, with users on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, assigning a 75% chance that Bitcoin’s next push could send it to $84,000. Those odds have increased from roughly 45% on April 1, underscoring increasing investor optimism amid the ongoing uptrend.

Looking ahead

Nevertheless, the bullish outlook remains uncertain. From a technical standpoint, a Schwab strategist identified $83,000 as a key resistance level, which is the average cost basis of Bitcoin ETP investors, according to a previous Decrypt report.

Beyond that is $87,000, which is the 200-day simple moving average, a breakout above which usually signals a shift in the long-term trend, favoring bulls.

“The $83,000 benchmark matters because it’s where a large cohort of spot ETP buyers are sitting at breakeven, and reclaiming it would be financially and psychologically significant for a huge pool of relatively recent institutional capital,”  Orkun Kılıç, co-founder and CEO of Chainway Labs, told Decrypt.

However, until these key hurdles are overcome, the outlook remains uncertain. The parallels to the Middle East conflict are telling: just as that situation remains unresolved, so too does Bitcoin’s path above $83,000.

Altcoins will become “fragile” if the leading crypto fails to overcome the ETP cost basis, Cai said. “Most of this rally is predicated on Bitcoin stability, not necessarily Bitcoin strength.”

As a result, a rejection here would likely “tighten liquidity conditions across the market, and altcoins—being higher beta—would feel that disproportionately.”

Investors should watch out for assets whose gains have “run ahead of fundamentals,” Cai explained, adding that these tokens could lead to a fast unwind of leveraged positions.

While optimism surrounding Bitcoin remains strong, investors remain skeptical about altcoins, with Myriad users seeing just a 22% chance that an “altseason” kicks off before July.