Morning Minute: $11T+ Schwab Goes All In on Crypto

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 says war should end soon; BTC at $75,700
• Stocks close green for record-tying 12th day in a row
• Schwab moves to offer spot BTC & ETH trading soon, with hefty fee
• Tether commits $127M to Drift while Circle faces lawsuit over failing to freeze
• CFTC chair Selig faces pressure on prediction markets and Hyperliquid

💰 Schwab Moves All In on Crypto

Charles Schwab confirmed on its Q1 earnings call Thursday that spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading is live in a phased rollout under the “Schwab Crypto” brand, operated through Charles Schwab Premier Bank.

Employees gain access first, then early-access registrants, then the full client base. Custody and settlement handled by Paxos. Notably, fees are 75 basis points per trade, substantially higher than ETFs.

CEO Rick Wurster also told analysts the firm will “likely” offer prediction markets at some point as well, specifically carving out financial event contracts as different from sports and politics bets.

For perspective, Schwab has $11.8 trillion in client assets and 16,000 financial advisors. Goldman Sachs filed for a Bitcoin income ETF this week. Morgan Stanley disclosed $1.24B in Bitcoin ETF exposure in its Q1 13F and launched its own ETF at 0.14%. The three biggest names in American retail and institutional finance are all making big moves inside crypto now. The institutions aren’t coming, they’re here.

Key Details:

• Charles Schwab launched phased spot BTC and ETH trading via “Schwab Crypto” at 75 bps per trade, with custody through Paxos
• The scale: $11.8 trillion in client assets and 16,000 financial advisors; now a direct competitor to Coinbase and Robinhood for retail crypto access
• The week in context: Goldman filed for a Bitcoin income ETF; Morgan Stanley disclosed $1.24B in BTC ETF exposure in Q1 and launched its own ETF at 0.14%; Schwab going spot direct

⚖️ The CFTC Chair Is Getting Hit From Both Sides

CFTC Chair Mike Selig appeared before the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday and got squeezed from two directions at once.

Republican and Democratic senators alike pushed back on the CFTC’s aggressive stance defending prediction markets in court while simultaneously demanding to know what the agency is doing about Hyperliquid, the offshore perpetual futures exchange that has been pulling volume away from regulated US venues with no CFTC oversight whatsoever.

Selig’s position on prediction markets: federal exclusive jurisdiction, full stop. States suing to restrict them are “attempting to nullify federal law.” He filed an amicus brief to back that up.

The Hyperliquid problem is harder. It’s a fully decentralized perp exchange operating offshore, outside CFTC reach, running markets on assets the CFTC would regulate if they were onshore. Senators on both sides want answers on how the agency plans to address that gap. Selig’s answer, essentially, was that the Clarity Act would help. The same Clarity Act that’s still sitting in markup.

Key Details:

• CFTC Chair Mike Selig faced bipartisan Senate pushback Thursday on two fronts: his aggressive court defense of prediction markets jurisdiction, and the agency’s inability to regulate Hyperliquid’s offshore perp trading
• On prediction markets: Selig maintains CFTC has “exclusive regulatory authority” regardless of contract type
• On Hyperliquid: decentralized offshore perp exchange is pulling regulated volume offshore with no CFTC reach; Selig’s answer points to the Clarity Act as the fix

🪂 Tether Bails Out Drift, And Takes Solana’s USDC Market With It

Tether committed up to $127.5M to fund the recovery of Drift Protocol, the Solana-based perpetual DEX that was drained of ~$285M in an April 1 North Korean hack. It’s part of a $147.5M total package with partners, structured as a revenue-linked credit facility that repays the $295.7M in user losses over time from Drift’s trading revenue.

Drift’s DRIFT token jumped 20% on the news.

Tied to the headline – Drift is relaunching with USDT as its settlement layer, not USDC. On Solana, USDC has a 2.65x market cap advantage over USDT. Drift had $550M in TVL before the hack and 128,000 users.

Circle, for its part, faced criticism for not freezing the stolen USDC faster – the attacker moved $232M from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s own cross-chain protocol while Circle declined to act without a court order. Tether just used a bailout to flip the dominant stablecoin on one of Solana’s largest protocols.

Key Details:

• Tether committed $127.5M – part of a $147.5M package – to back Drift Protocol’s recovery after an April 1 North Korean hack drained ~$285M
• The stablecoin flip: Drift relaunches on USDT, not USDC; Tether goes from a 2.65x underdog on Solana to the settlement layer of Solana’s largest perp DEX
• The Circle contrast: attacker moved $232M USDC via Circle’s own cross-chain protocol; Circle declined to freeze without a court order

🎨 Foundation Is Shutting Down

Foundation, one of the defining NFT art platforms of the 2021 boom, announced Wednesday it is shutting down after a planned sale to digital art company Blackdove collapsed.

CEO Kayvon Tehranian posted an open letter on X: “Our goal in pursuing a sale was always to see Foundation live on. That’s no longer possible.” A one-year wind-down window is in effect, and users have been told to start migrating off the platform.

MakersPlace shut down in January 2025. Nifty Gateway announced closure in January 2026 with 650,000 NFTs still on platform. Christie’s closed its digital art department last fall. Sotheby’s gutted its Metaverse team in 2024. Magic Eden shut down its NFT marketplace.

OpenSea is the lone survivor.

Key Details:

• • Foundation NFT platform is shutting down after a sale to Blackdove collapsed; CEO Kayvon Tehranian confirmed the wind-down in an open letter, and infrastructure stays live for one year while users migrate
  • The numbers: Foundation facilitated $230M in primary sales at peak; NFT art trading volume dropped from $2.9B in 2021 to $23.8M in early 2025
  • The full body count: MakersPlace (Jan 2025), KnownOrigin (Jul 2024), Christie’s digital art (fall 2025), Nifty Gateway (Jan 2026), Magic Eden (Mar 2026), Foundation (Apr 2026)

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are green after Trump says war should end soon; BTC +1.3% at $75.7k; ETH +1% at $2,357; SOL +3% at $88; HYPE -3% at $43.60
• M (+28%), RAVE (+23%), and ARB (+13%) led top movers
• Oil even at $88; Gold -1$ at $4,780
• Stocks have closed green for a record-tying 12 days in a row and would set a new record if green today
• Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill to invest state funds in Bitcoin, joining a growing list of state-level Bitcoin reserve efforts moving through legislatures in 2026.
• The Polkadot-Ethereum bridge hack cost $25M in losses – 10x the original estimate
• DoubleZero launched an edge platform giving trading firms accelerated access to Solana blockchain data
• Circle is being sued for its failure to freeze funds during the Drift exploit

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were mostly green; DOGE +2%, SHIB +3%, PEPE +4%, TRUMP +3%, PENGU +5%, SPX +4%, FARTCOIN +4%
• Asteroid (+150x), Belief (+400%), Zerebro (+40%), and Griffain (+39%) led notable onchain movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7 posted top benchmark scores in coding tests ahead of its release
• Pumpcade is launching an ACE round and allowing token holders to convert to equity in the company at a 2.5:1 ratio, giving the company an implied $75M market cap at current prices
• Artemis launched Artemis II as an open investment portal
• Odds of a MegaETH token launch coming by end of May jumped over 90% on prediction markets

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were slightly green; Punks +3% at 26.9 ETH, Pudgy even at 4.1 ETH, BAYC +2% at 6.5 ETH; Hypurr’s -1% at 399 HYPE
• Gimboz (+25%) and Memeland Captainz (+15%) led notable movers
• Yuga CEO Garga announced he would be stepping down as CEO and moving to Chairman of the Board, while Figge will take his place as CEO