Morning Minute: Saylor Buys $1.28B in Bitcoin, Powered by STRC

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. Check out Decrypt’s 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 oil falls; BTC at $70.6k
• Strategy bought $1.28B in Bitcoin last week with $377M coming from STRC
• Nasdaq is teaming up with Kraken to launch tokenized stock trading
• The US Treasury identifies legitimate use cases for crypto mixers
• ZCASH jumped after Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) raised $25M

🟠 Strategy Buys $1.28B in Bitcoin as STRC Issuance Surges

Michael Saylor’s Strategy purchased another 17,994 Bitcoin for $1.28B last week, continuing its aggressive treasury accumulation strategy.

The purchases were made between March 2 and March 8 at an average price of $70,946 per BTC, according to the company’s latest filing.

The buying was funded through Strategy’s ongoing at-the-market capital raise program, which taps both common equity and the company’s new STRC “Stretch” preferred shares.

With the latest acquisition, Strategy now holds 738,731 BTC, reinforcing its position as by far the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.

Key Details

• 17,994 BTC purchased at an average price of $70,946
• $377.1M of the buying power came from STRC preferred share issuance
• Average cost basis across all holdings: $75,862 per BTC

🟣 Tom Lee’s BitMine Boosts Ethereum Treasury to $9B

While Strategy continues to accumulate Bitcoin, another public company is making a big bet on Ethereum.

Tom Lee’s crypto firm BitMine has expanded its Ethereum treasury to roughly $9.14B after another week of big buys.

The company disclosed Monday that it now holds 4,534,563 ETH, after purchasing 60,976 ETH (~$123M worth) over the past week.

Alongside its Ethereum treasury, BitMine also reported holding $1.2 billion in cash and about $13.4 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

Key Details

• BitMine added 60,976 ETH (~$123M) over the last week
• Treasury valued around $9.14B at ~$2,015 per ETH
• Company also holds $1.2B in cash and $13.4M in BTC

📈 Nasdaq Teams With Kraken to Launch Tokenized Stock Trading

Nasdaq is partnering with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, to develop tokenized equities in a push to bring traditional stock ownership onto blockchain rails.

The initiative is set to launch in the first half of 2027 and will be built on Kraken’s xStocks framework.

The companies say the goal is to create an “equities transformation gateway” that lets eligible customers around the world trade tokenized versions of public company shares.

Nasdaq said the product is designed to modernize core market functions including corporate actions, shareholder engagement, and proxy voting. It also said the tokenized shares would carry full legal and regulatory equivalence, meaning transfer of the token would represent transfer of the underlying security.

Key Details

• Launch targeted for the first half of 2027
• Built on Kraken’s xStocks framework through parent company Payward
• Kraken says international users could gain access where xStocks is available, while U.S. users may benefit from greater collateral efficiency and capital mobility

🏛 U.S. Treasury Says Crypto Mixers Can Have Lawful Privacy Uses

The U.S. Treasury acknowledged in a new report to Congress that crypto mixers can have legitimate privacy uses, marking a notable change in tone around one of crypto’s most controversial technologies.

The report says lawful users may use mixers to protect sensitive information on personal wealth, business payments, charitable donations, and consumer spending from being exposed on public blockchains.

At the same time, Treasury stressed that mixers are still commonly used by North Korean hackers, ransomware actors, darknet markets, and other illicit finance networks.

Key Details

• Treasury said custodial mixers can operate lawfully if they register with FinCEN as money services businesses and comply with recordkeeping and suspicious activity reporting rules.
• The report says compliant mixers could provide regulators with customer identities, off-chain transaction data, and behavioral patterns when requested.
• Treasury still described mixers as a major laundering tool for DPRK cyber actors and ransomware groups.

💳 KAST Raises $80M Series A to Expand Stablecoin Payments

Stablecoin payments platform KAST announced an $80M Series A on Monday, giving the company fresh capital to expand its product, grow its team, and invest further in licensing and compliance.

The round was co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Peak XV Partners, HSG, and DST Global Partners.

KAST says it is building a stablecoin-powered financial platform designed to help consumers and businesses move money across borders more easily.

The company also shared a few notable traction metrics.

Since launch, KAST says it has grown to more than 1 million users, is processing close to $5 billion in annualized transaction volume, and has doubled revenue since the end of September 2025.

The company has plans to launch KAST Business as part of a broader product expansion this year, and has notably added talent from FinTech giants like Stripe, Revolut, Binance, Circle, and Airwallex.

Key Details

• Round size: $80M Series A co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital
• KAST says it now serves 1M+ users and processes ~$5B in annualized transaction volume ; Revenue has doubled since September 2025
• New capital will fund expansion across North America, Latin America, and the Middle East

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are rallying as Oil falls 30%; BTC +3% at $70.5k; ETH +2% at $2,050; SOL +3% at $87
• DEXE (+18%), TAO (+8%) and CHZ (+5%) led top movers
• Oil fell to $85 on Monday after peaking over $115 on Sunday night, down 30%
• Arthur Hayes published his “$HYPE Man” thesis Monday, calling Hyperliquid the “highest quality project in all of crypto” and setting an August price target of $150 (~5x from ~$30)
• Polymarket’s U.S. recession odds climbed to 41% Monday amid rising geopolitical risk and macro headwinds (now back to 29%)
• Block CEO Jack Dorsey said Block will support stablecoins despite his objections because “our customers want to use them”

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $167M in net inflows on Monday, while ETH ETFs saw $51M in outflows
• STRC moved another 2.4M shares on Monday, giving Saylor capital to buy another 1,360 BTC (a new record)
• SharpLink Gaming reported a $734M loss tied to Ethereum’s decline after pivoting into an ETH treasury strategy

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were very green outpacing BTC; DOGE +6%, SHIB +7%, PEPE +4%, TRUMP -2%, PENGU +7%, SPX +5%, FARTCOIN +4%
• michi (+180%), arc (+38%) and SHAPE (+75%) led top onchain movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Zcash jumped 7%+ after the Zcash Open Development Lab, formed by former ECC engineers after January’s governance dispute, raised $25M to keep building the ZEC protocol and the Zodl self-custodial wallet
• Polymarket is set to add binary options for the stock market

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly red with ETH rallying; Punks even at 29.9 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.35 ETH, BAYC -4% at 5.45 ETH; Hypurr’s -2% at 432 HYPE
• Good Vibes Club (+21%) led notable movers
• Pudgy Penguins announced that Pudgy World officially went live
• Gondi shared that its exploit was contained along with the steps it took to make impacted users whole