Morning Minute: Stablecoins Are Eating Everything

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s most important news:

• Crypto Majors Recover Sharply, Up 4-8%; BTC at $65.7k
• Meta confirms plans to reintroduce stablecoins on Facebook, WhatsApp and IG
• Coinbase launches 24/5 zero-fee stock trading and fractional shares
• Tether teased an upcoming product, with speculation about a card or a neobank
• Virtual recovers 20% while Base continues to drive the onchain AI meta

💰 Stablecoins eat everything

Forget the crypto winter.

The stable currency the market doesn’t care.

📌What happened

On the same day, Stripe announced a $159 billion valuation, largely driven by its stablecoin infrastructure, Meta confirmed it is re-entering the payments space with a stablecoin strategy targeting 3 billion users.

Meta sent RFPs to crypto infrastructure companies looking for a third-party partner to manage stablecoin-based payments on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, aiming for a launch early in the second half of 2026.

Stripe, which acquired stablecoin platform Bridge last year and whose CEO Patrick Collison sits on Meta’s board, is the leading candidate. This comes after Stripe processed a total payment volume of $1.9 trillion last year, an increase of 34%. The bridge volume has quadrupled. Stripe also received a national bank trust charter from the OCC last week, allowing it to take custody of crypto and directly manage stablecoin reserves.

Meta does not issue its own token, but wants a “stablecoin-agnostic” integration and a new in-app wallet. Meta spokespersons clarified that the project is about enabling payments, calling it “enabling people and businesses to pay using their preferred method.”

🗣️ What they say

“It may be a crypto winter, but it’s a stablecoin summer.”

“Stablecoin payments are progressing quietly and inexorably while real-world adoption continues apace.” – Patrick and John Collison, Stripe Annual Letter

“Nothing has changed; there is still no Meta stablecoin. It’s about enabling people and businesses to make payments on our platforms using their preferred method.” – Andy Stone, Communications Director of Meta

🧠Why it matters

A Meta stablecoin is a big deal.

Facebook has 3.2 billion monthly active users. WhatsApp has 3 billion, with a daily open rate of 84.1% (the highest of any major app) and 100 billion messages sent every day. Instagram reaches another 3 billion.

Meta’s entire family of apps reaches 3.98 billion unique people every month. That is roughly half of the world’s population.

For those who don’t remember, Meta’s previous attempt at a stablecoin failed because regulators cracked down on a company that tried to issue its own global currency. This time Meta doesn’t do any of that. They choose to be stablecoin agnostic and use third party rails.

They learned the lesson and now the regulatory environment under the GENIUS Act has made it easier to implement this.

If Meta makes this work only through WhatsApp – fund transfers, creator payouts, cross-border transfers – that’s a stablecoin use case on a scale that could dwarf anything currently on-chain.

Stablecoin supply and volumes would soar.

For traders: the clearest beneficiaries are Circle (USDC issuer, likely integration candidate), Tether (always in the driver’s seat), Stripe itself, and every infrastructure layer between the wallet and settlement. And Meta of course…

🌎 Macrocrypto and markets

• Crypto majors are very green after a big recovery; BTC +4% at $65.7K; ETH +6% at $1,940; SOL +8% at $83
• Virtual (+20%), Morpho (+16%), DOT (+13%) and ETHFI (+13%) were the leaders; AVAX +10% too
• Bitcoin has fallen 50% from all-time highs as trader sentiment becomes increasingly bearish, according to today’s Decrypt reporting.
• The Ethereum Foundation started staking 70,000 ETH from its treasury, with an initial deposit of 2,106 ETH going live today; Deploying rewards will fund protocol R&D and ecosystem subsidies
• Vitalik has sold more than 10,700 ETH since early February, raising approximately $6.1 million, with the proceeds used to help fund the Ethereum Foundation
• The Trump administration is publicly pressuring the crypto industry to revive the stalled market structure law
• Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial sides with Coinbase against the White House version of the market structure law, creating a rift between the Trump administration and Trump’s own crypto company over the term ‘stablecoin yield’
• Michigan lawmakers introduced a bill that would allow state employees to receive wages in Bitcoin
• Solana DeFi TVL has fallen 52% since its peak in September to $6.3 billion
• Tether teased an upcoming product announcement, with speculation about a neobank and/or payment card

Corporate bonds and ETFs

Meme coin tracker

• Meme majors were very green next to majors; DOGE +4%, SHIB +2%, PEPE +4%, TRUMP +5%, PENGU +8%, SPX +10%, FARTCOIN +13%
• Punch (+22%) and ARC (+25%) were the leaders; AgenC (+110x) and Claw (+52x) led new movers
• Basic AI Tokens increased with Virtual (+20%), VVV (+27%), FELIX (+100%) and TIBBIR (+19%)

💰 Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

• Coin base announced tokenized stock trading, available 24/5, with no commission fees and with fractional shares available
• Cracking launched tokenized perpetual stock futures via the xStocks framework, which offers up to 20x leverage on assets including the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Apple, Nvidia, Tesla and GLD
• Binance returned to tokenized equities for the first time since the regulatory backlash in 2021, listing 10 US equity, ETF and commodity tokens issued by Ondo Finance on Binance Alpha
• Ave DAO published an audit of Aave Labs’ historic performance ahead of their $51 million ask tomorrow
• EtherFi announced the earning feature is available on the iOS app

🚚 What’s happening in NFTs?

• NFT Leaders were slightly red as ETH bounced back; Punks -1% at 29.7 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 4.45 ETH, BAYC even at 6 ETH; Hypurr’s +2% at 467 HYPE
• Doodles (+14%) and Moonbirds (+5%) were the leaders
• Ether rock sells for 69.9 ETH
• XCOPYs ‘Last Selfie’ gets a $1 million loan