Morning Minute: Bitcoin Breaks to $124k & New All-Time High

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. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors soar and then retrace ahead of PPI
• BTC hits new ATH of $124,128 overnight
• ETH reaches $4,780 on 2nd-biggest day of ETF inflows on record
• MetaMask partners with Stripe for stablecoin, may debut today
• Google Play Store revises policy requiring licenses for non-custodial wallets

🚀 Bitcoin Breaks to New All-Time High

We have a smashing new BTC ATH on the books.

And it may be time for Bitcoin to shine.

📌 What Happened

Bitcoin just printed a new all-time high, topping $124,128 and breaking past its July record.

Ethereum is charging higher too, now within less than 4% of its 2021 ATH, trading above $4,780 at peak overnight.

Other majors and alts are soaring as well, including SOL which is now back over $200.

So what’s driving this uptrend?

• ETF inflows have stayed hot, with BTC products pulling steady institutional demand even through the summer lull
• Macro tailwinds and expectations for a Fed rate cut in September (now at 99% likelihood) are adding fuel, with traders rotating into risk assets
• Global liquidity backdrop, with easing in Asia and fresh capital in emerging markets are giving risk-on sentiment more legs.

Notably, Bitcoin dominance has dropped to 59% amidst the new ATH, signifying the potential for an ETH + ALT SZN.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“If you bought #Bitcoin every day like the El Salvador government, you’d have a 115% return! Since Nov 18, 2022, El Salvador has been buying 1 $BTC per day — buying 1,000 $BTC (cost $57.29M, now worth $124M) at an average price of $57,793, with an unrealized profit of $66M(+115%).” – Analytics account lookonchain, on X

🧠 Why It Matters

Legendary crypto trader Cobie changing his PFP to the “up only” version with Bitcoin glasses was just the icing on the cake.

The crypto bull market is in full swing.

And this is where things can get a little nutty – new ATHs every day, god candles and rotations down the risk curve to try to catch the next fastest horse.

But don’t lose the plot – this cycle may very well be different from past cycles.

The bid is largely driven by ETFs and Institutions (TreasuryCos). That means less onchain rotation is likely.

Good for BTC and ETH for sure, for other alts – a bit less clear.

There’s a real scenario here where BTC and ETH dominate the bull run and rotating to alts is a foolish strategy.

With that said, there will be pockets of outperformance for sure. And likely a lot of surprises still left in store for us.

For now, it’s time to respect the pump,

Let ‘Up Only’ SZN begin…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors rallied hard then sold off this morning ahead of PPI; BTC +1% at $120,800, ETH +1% at $4,710, XRP -2% at $3.21, SOL +1% at $203
• ADA (+11%), ARB (+10%), KAIA (+9%) and RAY (+6%) led top movers
• BTC hit a new ATH at $124,128 overnight before retracing
• The ETH ETFs saw $729.1M in net inflows on Wednesday, the 2nd biggest day on record ($86.9M for BTC)
• MetaMask is reportedly partnering with Stripe to launch a stablecoin mmUSD, debuting as soon as today
• Standard Chartered has significantly raised its Ethereum price target, now $7,500 by end of 2025, and an ambitious $25,000 by 2028
• Bullish, a crypto exchange backing institutions, had a roller coaster IPO debut, soaring 3x from its IPO of $37 to $100+ before settling at $67
• Paradigm’s Matt Huang will become the CEO of Stripe’s ‘Tempo’ L1 blockchain project
• Anchorage Digital announced it will custody HYPE, bringing “institutional-grade security to HyperEVM”
• The Google Play Store briefly introduced a policy to require licenses for crypto wallets before reversing the policy just hours later, stating it would only impact custodial wallet apps (those from exchanges)

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are mostly red on the day; DOGE -3%, Shiba -2%, PEPE -4%, PENGU -6%, BONK -3%, TRUMP -1%, SPX -6%, and FARTCOIN -1%
• USELESS jumped 33% to $280M after Coinbase added it to its listing roadmap
• BROWNHOUSE (+36x) and STUPID (+450%) were top new onchain movers; KORI (+37%) and GP (+39%) also notable movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap up 3% to $13.6B, leaders were mixed
• FARTCOIN (-1%), VIRTUAL (-6%), TIBBIR (+3%), ai16z (-5%) & AIXBT (-6%)
• BUZZ (+40%) and FOREST(+20%) led top movers
• TIBBIR briefly hit a new ATH at $250M before pulling back (now $228M)

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• ETH NFT leaders were red and correcting more after the ETH rally; Punks -2% at 51.5 ETH, Pudgy -6% at 13.6, BAYC -6% at 12.2 ETH
• V1 CryptoPunks (+22%) and Captainz (+10%) were notable top movers
• Bitcoin NFTs were mostly red, led by Cents +15%
• Abstract NFTs were also mostly red, no notable movers
• Azuki introduced a new collab with Moser & Cie, offering $25k and $75k watches