Morning Minute: Crypto Falls Amidst War Escalation and Mythos Release
Crypto slipped amid two macro shocks and a busy policy day. A US Army Apache went down near the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Trump to blame Iran and signal retaliation, while reports said the US had already begun defensive strikes. At the same time, Anthropic released Claude Fable 5, a public version of its security-focused Mythos model, but early reports suggest it often refuses smart-contract review and routes many requests to older models, limiting its near-term impact on crypto. Markets also sold off ahead of a CPI reading expected to be hot. In Washington, House crypto tax reform ran into political resistance. Lawmakers discussed several draft bills on staking, mining, stablecoins, and digital-asset tax treatment, but Democratic objections and leadership pushback may delay action until after the midterms. Separately, DeFi lender Morpho raised $175 million at up to a $2 billion valuation, backed by major crypto and traditional finance investors. The round reinforces strong demand for institutional onchain credit infrastructure.
