Morning Minute: Bitcoin Breaks $73K as Strategy's STRC Bid Grows
Strategy's STRC is buoying the Bitcoin bid, Galaxy stock is ripping, and Scott Bessent told the Senate to pass the Clarity Act—with Brian Armstrong chiming in.
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GM! Today’s top news: - Crypto majors up 1%; BTC at $72K - ZEC and MON rally 20% leading top movers; HYPE +5% - CZ and OKX founder Star publicly dispute, CZ calls for $1B “divorce” bet - Bessent and Brian Armstrong both say it’s time to pass the Clarity Act - WLFI falls 10% after team reveals using 5B tokens to borrow $75M
🌎 Bitcoin breaks $73K on ceasefire hopes, STRC Bitcoin topped $73,000 briefly on Thursday, per data from CoinMarketCap, reversing an early sell-off after Netanyahu signaled Lebanon negotiations. It bounced off that level near-term. The Bitcoin options market is even more bullish. Data shows that the $80,000 level is seeing the most open interest for June expiry contracts. As for why traders are bullish—well, it could be Saylor-driven. Strategy's STRC had another massive day Thursday with over 3M preferred shares moved, generating capital for over $144M in Bitcoin purchases.
📊 Galaxy profit rockets, stock jumps The headline number from Galaxy’s 2025 annual report, a $241M net loss, buried the more important core performance. Galaxy Digital’s core assets segment generated $505M in adjusted profit. GLXY closed up 11.3% Thursday, second-best crypto equity on the day. The thesis Mike Novogratz is selling isn’t a crypto trading story anymore. It’s AI infrastructure. Galaxy's Helios facility in Texas is fully leased to CoreWeave, and AI compute revenue begins in 2026.
🦅 Gemini is on sale, but nobody wants the whole thing Potential buyers are circling Gemini, but not in the way the Winklevoss twins might want. Interested parties are evaluating an acquisition of Gemini’s shuttered EU and UK operations specifically for MiCA and FCA licenses. Gemini IPO’d at $28 in September 2025 and now trades around $4.70, down 83%. The exchange cut 25% of its workforce in February and exited multiple international markets.
⚖️ Bessent to the Senate: Pass the Clarity Act Treasury Secretary Bessent urged the Senate to pass the Clarity Act and resolve the stablecoin yield dispute still stalling the bill. This comes after the White House Council of Economic Advisors found that a yield ban would only boost lending by a negligible amount. Brian Armstrong also signaled support, tweeting “It’s time to pass the Clarity Act.”
🤖 Florida goes after OpenAI Florida AG James Uthmeier launched a formal investigation into OpenAI and ChatGPT, citing concerns over child safety and CCP data access. The investigation arrives as AI infrastructure, specifically data centers, face increasing regulatory and political pressure.
🌎 Macro crypto and markets Crypto majors are slightly green: BTC +1% at $72.1k; ETH +1% at $2,210; SOL +2% at $84; HYPE +5% at $41. DEXE (+30%), ZEC (+20%), and MON (+20%) led top movers. Bitcoin ETFs saw $343M in net inflows on Thursday; ETH ETFs had $85M in net inflows.
Meme Coin Tracker Meme leaders were slightly green: DOGE +1%, SHIB +1%, PEPE +1%, TRUMP -2%, PENGU +4%, SPX +5%, FARTCOIN +2%.
💰 Token, airdrop & protocol Tracker Tether released its QVAC SDK for local offline AI apps. Nunchuk released open-source tools for AI agents to interact with Bitcoin wallets via multi-sig. DeFi lender Sky is restructuring to pursue a formal credit rating. Binance enabled prediction market trading in-app via Predict.fun. WLFI fell 10% after revealing a $75M loan against tokens.
🚚 What is happening in NFTs? NFT leaders were mostly flat: Punks -1% at 28 ETH, Pudgy -1 at 4.2 ETH, BAYC even at 6.39 ETH. Nouns (+69%) and Kodas (+13%) led notable movers.
