Morning Minute: Bitcoin Falls After Powell’s Likely Final FOMC

Morning Minute is a each day e-newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The evaluation and opinions expressed are his personal and don’t essentially replicate these of Decrypt. And take a look at our new each day information present protecting the entire prime tales in 5 minutes or much less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

As we speak’s prime information:

Crypto majors fall 2-3% after FOMC and charge reduce odds go to 0; BTC at $76k
Massive Tech earnings beat, CapEx thesis pays off; GOOG +7%, AMZN +3%
Meta launches stablecoin payouts for creators utilizing USDC
Sky posts its finest quarter ever, token nonetheless falls
MegaETH debuts its MEGA token, reaches $2B+ FDV on open

👋 Jerome Powell’s Last FOMC

Jerome Powell held what’s prone to be his final press convention as Federal Reserve chair Wednesday after the FOMC voted 8-4 to carry charges regular at 3.50-3.75%. Notably there have been 4 dissents—a pointed sign to incoming Chair Kevin Warsh: Don’t assume this committee will observe your lead.

The shock from the assembly got here from Powell, who introduced he’ll stay on the Fed’s Board of Governors past Might 15 for a interval he described as “to be decided,” citing the Trump administration’s ongoing investigations into the Fed. “We’ve been having to resort to the courts. We’ve been profitable thus far. However that’s not over.”

As for the financial system and the Fed’s subsequent actions, Powell stated the Fed faces an unusually tough scenario—4 provide shocks in fast succession (pandemic, Ukraine invasion, tariffs, and Iran battle), every able to driving inflation and unemployment greater concurrently. Odds of a charge reduce in 2026 fell to 1% after his feedback (down from ~25% final week).



💰 Massive Tech Earnings Don’t Disappoint

Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta all reported Q1 2026 outcomes Wednesday after the shut. The broad abstract is that AI capex is starting to justify itself, cloud progress is accelerating, and the ROI debate that has hung over massive tech all 12 months is tilting constructive.

The one exception is Meta, whose inventory fell 6-7% in after-hours buying and selling regardless of beating on income after elevating its already-enormous 2026 capex steering by one other $10 billion. Meta additionally missed on person progress and blamed “web disruptions in Iran.”

Alphabet (Google) was the standout. Google Cloud grew 63% year-over-year to $20.1 billion, its quickest progress since 2022. CEO Sundar Pichai stated enterprise AI options grew to become the first cloud progress driver “for the primary time in Q1.” All 4 beat earnings, although the shares of every had various outcomes.

Key Particulars:

Alphabet: Google Cloud +63% to $20.1B, internet revenue +81%, AI enterprise options “main cloud progress driver for the primary time”; capex raised to $180-190B; inventory +7%
Amazon: AWS income $37.59B (+28%), beat consensus by practically $1B, quickest cloud progress in 3+ years; working revenue +23% to $14.16B; AI income run charge confirmed at $15B+ for first time; inventory +3%
Microsoft: Azure +40%, beat expectations; mixed with Alphabet and AWS, cloud AI monetization is broadly on monitor; inventory -2%
Meta: income $56.31B (+33%), beat on EPS, robust advert metrics – however capex raised $10B at each ends to $125-145B; blamed Iran disruptions for person progress miss; shares -9% AH on the capex elevate

💸 Meta Launches Stablecoin Payouts for Creators

Meta has quietly begun paying choose creators in USDC on Solana and Polygon, marking the corporate’s return to crypto funds 4 years after shutting down its Libra venture beneath intense regulatory stress.

The rollout is at present restricted to creators in Colombia and the Philippines, who can hyperlink a MetaMask, Phantom, or Binance pockets to their Fb payout account and obtain earnings in Circle’s USDC. Stripe handles the backend infrastructure and crypto-specific tax reporting.

Meta is obvious it isn’t issuing its personal stablecoin; it’s plugging into USDC, and isn’t providing an off-ramp, that means creators should convert to native forex by way of a third-party trade themselves.

📈 Sky Protocol (MakerDAO) Posts Its Finest Quarter Ever

Sky Protocol (the rebranded model of MakerDAO) posted file Q1 2026 monetary outcomes Tuesday. The $13 billion protocol generated practically $124 million in gross income and virtually $61 million in internet income within the first three months of the 12 months, the very best revenue since MakerDAO launched in 2017.

Institutional curiosity in on-chain yield merchandise continues to develop, and Sky’s real-world asset collateral mannequin, which generates income from mortgage stability charges, liquidation charges, and peg stability module charges, is benefiting straight from that demand.

Regardless of the bullish outcomes, the SKY governance token fell about 2.4% on the information. It serves as a painful reminder for token holders, that income information don’t mechanically translate to token holder worth (except the tokenomics dictate it through buybacks or different routes).

🥩 Steak ‘n Shake’s Bitcoin Technique Is Really Working

The 91-year-old burger chain started accepting Bitcoin funds in Might 2025 throughout all U.S. places. Since then, same-store gross sales rose “dramatically.”

Cost processing charges dropped 50% in contrast with bank cards through the Lightning Community. The corporate routed all customer-paid Bitcoin straight right into a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve somewhat than changing it to money, formalized a $10 million treasury buy in January, added one other $10 million in April forward of the Bitcoin 2026 convention, and simply launched a Bitcoin-themed milkshake . In March, it started paying hourly workers a 21-cent-per-hour Bitcoin bonus funded from the reserve.

COO Dan Edwards describes the mannequin as a self-reinforcing cycle: prospects pay in Bitcoin, gross sales rise, Bitcoin income funds restaurant upgrades and worker bonuses, and higher shops appeal to extra prospects. With 210 BTC in its treasury and counting, and gross sales rising, Stake ‘n Shake is popping into one in all Bitcoin’s largest client success tales.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Crypto majors fell after FOMC and odds of a charge reduce in 2026 went to 0; BTC -2% at $76k; ETH -3% at $2,260; SOL -2% at $83; HYPE -4% at $39
LUNC (+3%), POL (+2%), and TRON (+1%) led prime movers
Oil +2% at $105; Gold +2% at $4,640
Inventory futures are inexperienced after earnings beats from Massive Tech and Eli Lilly
Jack Maller’s Twenty One Capital surged on Wednesday after majority proprietor Tether proposed merging XXI with Strike and Bitcoin miner Elektron Power, uniting treasury, mining, funds, and capital markets beneath one public firm; XXI holds 43,514 BTC (~$3.3B), third amongst public corporations
Visa expanded to 5 extra blockchains on Wednesday, including Base, Polygon, Canton, Circle’s Arc, and Stripe’s Tempo to its stablecoin settlement pilot; this system has hit a $7 billion annualized run charge, up 50% from final quarter
MoonPay acquired Israeli agency Sodot for $100 million in inventory and used the deal to launch MoonPay Institutional, a brand new division for banks and asset managers led by former CFTC Performing Chair Caroline Pham
Alex Mashinsky was completely banned from crypto beneath a $10 million FTC settlement on Wednesday; a $4.72 billion judgment was entered however largely suspended

Company Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

Meme leaders had been very pink; DOGE -3%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -5%, PENGU -6%, TRUMP -4%, BONK -4%, SPX -7%, FARTCOIN -7%
WISH (+71x), Bio (+33%) and testicle (+15%) led notable movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

MegaETH’s MEGA token debuted this morning, opening at $0.18 and a $200M market cap ($1.8B FDV)
Pump Enjoyable launched Charity Cash as a strategy to clear up the difficulty of charity-related memes not getting proceeds to the precise locations
Hyperliquid printed the payment construction for HIP-4 Wednesday, its prediction market proposal that lets customers commerce binary end result contracts throughout the similar margin account as their current perps; no open-position charges, prices apply solely at shut or settlement

🚚 What is occurring in NFTs?

NFT leaders had been inexperienced led by Bored Apes; Punks even at 30.9 ETH, BAYC +10% at 10.8 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 5.34 ETH; Hypurr’s even at 350 HYPE
Azuki Elementals (+25%), Kodas (+22%) and MAYC (+12%) led notable prime movers