Morning Minute: Vanguard Flirts With Crypto

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 rally over the weekend; BTC reclaims $112,000
• Vanguard reportedly considering offering crypto ETF access to its 50M investors
• SEC and FINRA investigating DATs for insider trading
• Tether is reportedly raising at a $500B valuation; XPL at $13B after first days of trading
• Hypurr NFTs open at $65k floor on $60M+ in their first day of trading

🛡️ Vanguard Flirts With Crypto

The world’s second-largest asset manager is considering letting its U.S. clients buy crypto ETFs.

The final walls are falling down.

📌 What Happened

Last week, Crypto in America reported that Vanguard is weighing access to select spot crypto ETFs for brokerage customers.

This is a sharp departure from its 2024 stance, when it blocked spot Bitcoin ETFs on-platform.

There’s no final decision or product list yet; the discussions reflect persistent client demand and the competitive reality that most major peers already enable trading.

Notably, Vanguard’s CEO Salim Ramji was previously at BlackRock and oversaw the launch of their Bitcoin ETF IBIT, one of the most successful ETF launches of all time.

For asset context, Vanguard today oversees ~$10T in AUM and serves more than 50 million investors globally, so even a cautious rollout would be consequential for ETF liquidity.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“They’re being very methodical in their approach, understanding the dynamics have been changing since 2024.” – source talking to Crypto in America

“Vanguard, the 2nd largest asset manager in the world, is finally planning to allow clients to invest in crypto ETFs on their platform. By waiting this long, they have “protected” clients from +150% gains on $BTC since the ETFs went live.” – Satoshi Stacker on X

🧠 Why It Matters

If Vanguard enables crypto ETF access, even with tight guardrails, it adds a massive set of ongoing inflows into crypto majors.

That means deeper secondary-market liquidity, broader retirement-account penetration, and more “default” exposure from set-it-and-forget-it investors who previously had to move assets elsewhere.

Just 1% of $11T is $110B in inflows (and likely a major up-front portfolio rebalance adjustment).

That’s massive.

It also marks a symbolic validation: the firm that once said “not appropriate for long-term portfolios” would be acknowledging a durable role for crypto alongside stocks and bonds.

The final holdouts are starting to capitulate.

The crypto boom cycle is about to begin…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• The SEC and FINRA announced investigations into DATs for potential insider trading
• SharpLink (SBET) to offer tokenized shares via Superstate’s Opening Bell

In Memes

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

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

• Plasma’s XPL mainnet + token launched on major exchanges with a $2.4B+ market cap (though down 9% from yesterday at $1.29)
• Aster led all perps dexes in volume and fees over the past week, including beating Tether in fees
• ApeX (APEX) spiked ~280% last week amid whale buys and team teasers, coming after 25M APEX rewards/airdrop program and roadmap were teased
• Punk Strategy’s PNKSTR token soared to $90M and a new ATH after announcing a series of new NFT strategy token launches including Squiggles, CrypToadz and more

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

• Overall market cap +2% at $16.9B, leaders were green
• FARTCOIN (+5%), VIRTUAL (+3%), TIBBIR (-5%), aixbt (+2) & ai16z (+2%)
• DOGEAI (+18%) and TIBBIR (+14%) led top movers

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

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

• ETH NFT leaders were slightly red on the week despite the pick up in NFT Strategy tokens; Punks -3% at 47.6 ETH, Pudgy -2% at 10.23, BAYC -3% at 9.13 ETH
• Kaito Genesis NFTs (+170%), goblins (+260%) and GVC (+50%) were notable top movers
• Hypurr NFTs were airdropped to early Hyperliquid users and reached a 1,390 HYPE floor ($65,000) on an insane $60M in daily volume