Morning Minute — Tyler Warner’s quick-hit roundup of the top crypto headlines — now with a daily five-minute show available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Big picture: the U.S. just opened the door to regulated perpetual futures, sparking a fresh leg up across the market, while a headline-grabbing fight over stablecoin yields intensifies in Washington and the U.S. says it has seized roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto.
CFTC green-lights U.S. perpetuals — and a carved path for offshore perps
In what many are calling the most consequential regulatory move since the Bitcoin ETF approvals, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on May 29 approved KalshiEX’s BTCPERP — the first Bitcoin perpetual listed on a U.S.-regulated exchange. The contract is cash-settled, trades 24/7, and uses a funding mechanism tied to spot prices.
At the same time the CFTC provided no-action relief to a Coinbase affiliate to let U.S. customers access options and perpetuals offered by Deribit, an affiliated foreign board of trade. That relief also allows Coinbase Financial Markets to accept Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins as margin for eligible customers.
CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the agency had “taken historic action to permit the listing of a true Bitcoin perpetual contract by a CFTC-registered exchange, charting a path for one of the most liquid segments of the crypto asset markets.” The agency appears to be drawing two regulatory lines: one pathway for domestic listings on CFTC-registered exchanges, and another for offshore products treated as foreign futures.
Market reaction was immediate: Coinbase stock jumped about 4% and Robinhood roughly 11% on Friday. Crypto token Hyperliquid (HYPE) surged more than 30% from Thursday lows to a new all-time high of $73.50 — leaving it roughly 270% ahead of Bitcoin year-to-date and cementing its status as a market favorite. There’s debate about whether formal U.S. perps ultimately help Hyperliquid long-term (the move opens the door to regulated competition), but traders clearly cheered the news.
Dimon vs. Armstrong — the Clarity Act fight heats up
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon went public with blistering criticism of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong over the Clarity Act, calling Armstrong “full of shit” in a dispute centered on a stablecoin yield carve-out. Armstrong has pushed to preserve a “bona fide activities” exception that would let platforms offer activity-based rewards on stablecoin balances. Dimon argues any yield-like rewards amount to deposit competition that could threaten the banking system’s deposits.
The Senate returns from Memorial Day recess this week, and leadership expects a floor vote on the Clarity Act within about 30 days. The bill passed out of committee 15–9 with bipartisan support on May 14, but it still needs 60 votes to advance on the floor — roughly six Democratic crossovers. Prediction markets currently put the bill’s odds at about 56% this year, though those probabilities could shift as lawmakers negotiate.
U.S. seizes roughly $1 billion in Iranian crypto
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. has “outright grabbed” roughly $1 billion worth of crypto tied to Iran, including Bitcoin, Ether and Tether (USDT). The seizures relate to Iran’s Hormuz Safe platform and follow OFAC enforcement actions targeting entities accused of using crypto to evade sanctions.
This ranks as the largest single crypto seizure from a hostile state actor since the Department of Justice’s 2022 takedown of 94,000 BTC linked to the Bitfinex hack. The U.S. currently holds about 200,000 BTC in a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve built via criminal and civil forfeitures. White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt said in late April a “major announcement” on the reserve was imminent. Representative Mark Begich’s American Reserves Modernization Act — which proposes a budget-neutral plan to acquire 1 million BTC over five years — explicitly contemplates using seized assets as part of that accumulation.
Iranian state media denounced the action as “an act of financial warfare,” saying Iranian cyber units are working to “identify and neutralize” the enforcement infrastructure used in the seizures.
What to watch next
- Implementation details and market adoption for U.S.-listed perpetuals, and whether other regulated venues follow KalshiEX’s lead.
- How the Clarity Act vote shapes up after the Senate returns — and whether the “bona fide activities” carve-out survives negotiations.
- Any announcements about the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and how seized assets may be allocated or deployed.
That’s your Morning Minute. For a brisk daily recap of the top stories in five minutes, check our new show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
