Morning Minute: Crypto VC Haun Raises $1B Despite Market Slump

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 up 2-5%, Hype leads; Bitcoin at $81,000
• BTC ETFs see $1.15B in net inflows over past 2 sessions
• DTCC to begin tokenized stock trading in July
• WLFI countersues Justin Sun stating he suppressed the token price
• Telegram to replace TON Foundation as largest validator and driver of TON (TON +30%)

💰 Haun Ventures Raises $1B Against a Cooling Crypto VC Market

Katie Haun closed $1 billion for two new funds Monday, at a moment when crypto venture capital is in a genuine slump.

April 2026 saw just $659 million in crypto VC funding across 63 deals, a 74% drop from March and the lowest monthly figure since July 2024. Year-to-date 2026 crypto VC stands at $5.64 billion, still fairly substantial but down sharply from the pace set in 2025 (on the back of mega-rounds from Binance, Polymarket, and Kalshi). Monthly funding has declined every month since October 2025’s $3.84 billion peak, tracking a 37% contraction in global crypto market cap over the same period.

Against that backdrop, Haun Ventures raising $1 billion is notable. The firm is one of the only crypto-native funds to grow counter-cyclically—AUM has climbed from $1 billion to $2.5 billion while Paradigm, Pantera, and a16z crypto have all seen AUM shrink since 2025’s peak. The returns justify the confidence. Haun’s first fund backed Bridge at a $100 million valuation before Stripe acquired it for $1.1 billion, and invested in BVNK at $678 million before Mastercard acquired it for $1.8 billion—the largest stablecoin acquisition to date. The thesis across both exits: stablecoin infrastructure would become essential financial plumbing, and the acquirers would be incumbent payments companies, not other crypto firms.

The new funds expand that thesis to AI agents. Haun’s argument is that AI agents will need regulated financial infrastructure to operate: wallets, payment rails, compliance layers, and the firms that built stablecoin rails are best positioned to build it. The fund’s largest current bet is Erebor, Palmer Luckey’s federally insured digital bank at a $4.35 billion valuation, designed from the ground up to serve AI and defense technology companies rather than retail consumers. Haun was clear she isn’t pivoting: “We’re not becoming an AI fund. But AI agents will need regulated financial plumbing, and the firms that built stablecoin infrastructure are best positioned to build it.”

📈 Strive Crosses 15,000 BTC, Now the 9th Largest Corporate Bitcoin Holder

Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) disclosed Monday that it crossed 15,000 BTC in its treasury after purchasing 444 BTC for $33.9 million at an average cost of $76,307.

The firm now sits 9th among public corporate Bitcoin holders, within striking distance of Riot (15,680 BTC) and Coinbase (15,389 BTC). As of May 1, Strive also held $97.9 million in cash and $50.4 million in Strategy’s STRC preferred stock, giving it a layered Bitcoin exposure play across both direct holdings and structured products.

Strive describes itself as “the first publicly traded asset management Bitcoin treasury company” and measures performance by Bitcoin per share rather than earnings. YTD BTC yield of 18.7% is its primary headline metric. CEO Matt Cole has centered the firm around what he calls “digital credit,” structured finance products generating yield through Bitcoin exposure, anchored by its SATA preferred stock.

Digital credit—a concept Michael Saylor himself is “striving” for…

💸 DTCC Looks to Bridge TradFi and DeFi via Tokenization

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation which processed $4.7 quadrillion in securities transactions last year and custodies $114 trillion in assets, announced it will begin live tokenized securities trades in July, with a full commercial launch in October.

The service tokenizes DTC-custodied assets including Russell 1000 stocks, major ETFs, and US Treasuries, while preserving all existing legal protections, ownership rights, and entitlements. The underlying assets stay in DTC custody.

What changes is the form: a holder gets a blockchain token that mirrors the real thing and can move across digital networks in ways legacy systems cannot. DTCC received its SEC no-action letter in December, covering a defined set of assets on pre-approved blockchains, so it should be in the clear.

The Industry Working Group building the service includes Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Circle, Coinbase, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, Ondo Finance, and Fireblocks—the broadest coalition of TradFi and crypto-native firms assembled around a single tokenization initiative. DTCC CEO Frank La Salla: “Our vision is coming to fruition: launching our tokenization service and successfully bridging TradFi and DeFi.”

🚩The Trump Crypto Lawsuit Is Now a Two-Front War

World Liberty Financial filed a defamation lawsuit against Justin Sun in Florida state court on Monday, a counter to the federal fraud lawsuit Sun filed against WLFI in California last month.

The legal dispute, which started as a frozen token disagreement, has escalated into a multi-front war involving allegations of market manipulation, hidden smart contract controls, straw purchases, and a coordinated short-selling campaign.

WLFI’s core allegation: Sun-affiliated wallets moved $300 million to Binance at the moment WLFI launched for public trading in September 2025, executing what the company calls “a large, deliberate, short-selling campaign designed to suppress $WLFI’s price” at launch. WLFI says it froze Sun’s 2.9 billion tokens to prevent further harm—and that Sun agreed to the freeze mechanism in his original investment contract. After the freeze, Sun began publicly calling WLFI a “scam,” accusing the team of embedding secret “backdoors” in smart contracts, and allegedly privately threatening that his lawsuit would “light World Liberty on fire.” WLFI is seeking damages and a public retraction.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are green, up 1-4%; BTC +3% at $81k; ETH +2% at $2,380; SOL +1% at $85; HYPE +6% at $43.7
• TON (+33%), Morpho (+13%), and ZRO (+8%) led top movers
• Oil -1% at $104; Gold -0.3% at $4,40
• Stock futures are slightly green as treasury yields ease, ships pass in Hormuz
• GameStop submitted a non-binding $55.5 billion offer to acquire eBay at $125/share, 50% cash, 50% GME stock, with $20B in TD Bank financing and $9.4B in cash on hand; CEO Ryan Cohen’s pitch is that eBay under tighter cost controls becomes “a legit competitor to Amazon”
• Kraken parent Payward completed its $550 million acquisition of Bitnomial Monday, securing all three CFTC licenses (DCM, DCO, and FCM), making it the only crypto-native firm with the full US derivatives stack
• Bullish announced that it’s going to tokenize its entire cap table today at Consensus, and then also announced an acquisition of Equiniti for $4.2B

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were green; DOGE +1%, SHIB +1%, PEPE +2%, PENGU +11%, TRUMP +1%, BONK +4%, SPX +8%, FARTCOIN +3%
• Chud (+60%), Buttcoin (+20%), Chillguy(+10%) and unc (+10%) led notable movers; Cards +20% as well

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders are slightly red on the day; Punks even at 31 ETH, BAYC -1% at 10.67 ETH, Pudgy -4% at 5.38 ETH; Hypurr’s -1% at 349 HYPE
• AKCB (+25%), A Gift of Time (+15%) and CloneX (+12%) led notable movers