Morning Minute: Bitcoin declines after Powell’s possible final FOMC meeting

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Today’s most important news:

• Major Cryptocurrencies Drop 2-3% After FOMC Odds of Interest Rate Cuts Move to 0; Bitcoin at $76,000
• Big Tech Earnings Outperform, CapEx Thesis Pays Off; Google +7%, Amzn +3%
• Meta launches stablecoin payments for creators using USDC
• Sky posted its best quarter ever, and the token continues to decline
• MegaETH debuts its MEGA token, reaching $2B+FDV at open

👋 Jerome Powell’s Final FOMC

Jerome Powell held what was likely to be his last news conference as Fed chair on Wednesday after the Federal Open Market Committee voted 8-4 to keep interest rates steady at 3.50-3.75%. It is worth noting that there were four dissenters – a clear signal to new Chairman Kevin Warsh: Don’t assume this committee will follow your lead.

The surprise of the meeting came from Powell, who announced that he would remain on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors beyond May 15 for a period he described as “to be determined,” citing the ongoing investigations conducted by the Trump administration into the Federal Reserve. “We had to go to the courts. We have succeeded so far. But it is not over yet.”

As for the economy and the Fed’s next actions, Powell said the Fed faces an unusually difficult situation — four supply shocks in rapid succession (the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine, the tariffs, and the Iran war), each capable of pushing inflation and unemployment up simultaneously. The odds of a rate cut in 2026 dropped to 1% after his comments (down from roughly 25% last week).

💰 The profits of major technology companies are not disappointing

Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta all reported first-quarter 2026 results on Wednesday after the close. The general summary is that AI capital expenditures are starting to justify themselves, cloud growth is accelerating, and the ROI debate that has been hanging over big tech companies all year is leaning toward building.

The one exception is Meta, whose stock fell 6-7% in after-hours trading despite rising revenue after raising its already massive 2026 capex guidance by another $10 billion. Meta also missed the growth in the number of users and blamed “internet outage in Iran.”

Alphabet (Google) was the leader. Google Cloud grew 63% year over year to $20.1 billion, its fastest growth since 2022. Enterprise AI solutions became the primary driver of cloud growth “for the first time in the first quarter,” CEO Sundar Pichai said. All four companies beat earnings, although their respective stocks had mixed results.

Key details:

• alphabet: Google Cloud +63% to $20.1B, net income +81%, enterprise AI solutions ‘primary driver of cloud growth for the first time’; Capital expenditures were raised to $180-190 billion. Inventory +7%
• Amazon: AWS revenue was $37.59B (+28%), beating consensus by nearly $1B, the fastest cloud growth in over 3 years; Operating income +23% to $14.16 billion; AI revenue run rate of $15 billion confirmed for first time; Inventory +3%
• Microsoft: Azure +40%, exceeding expectations; Together with Alphabet and AWS, cloud AI monetization is on track at scale; Inventory -2%
• Meta: Revenue $56.31 billion (+33%), beating EPS and strong advertising metrics – but capex increased $10 billion on both ends to $125-145 billion; He blamed the unrest in Iran for slowing user growth; Shares -9% E on increased capital expenditures

💸 Meta launches Stablecoin payouts for creators

Meta has It quietly started paying selected creators in USDC on Solana and Polygon, marking the company’s return to cryptocurrency payments four years after it shut down its Libra project under intense regulatory pressure.

The rollout is currently limited to creators in Colombia and the Philippines, who can link a MetaMask, Phantom, or Binance wallet to their Facebook payment account and receive earnings in Circle’s USDC currency. Stripe handles the back-end infrastructure and tax reporting for cryptocurrencies.

Obviously, Meta does not issue its own stablecoin; It is plugged into USDC, and offers no output, meaning creators must convert to the local currency through a third-party exchange themselves.

📈 Sky Protocol (MakerDAO) posted its best quarter ever

Sky Protocol (rebranded version of MakerDAO) It posted record financial results for the first quarter of 2026 on Tuesday. The $13 billion protocol generated nearly $124 million in gross revenue and nearly $61 million in net revenue in the first three months of the year, the highest income since MakerDAO launched in 2017.

Institutional interest in on-chain yield products continues to grow, and Sky’s real-world asset collateral model, which generates revenue from loan stabilization fees, liquidation fees, and peg stabilization unit fees, directly benefits from this demand.

Despite the bullish results, the SKY governance token fell about 2.4% on the news. It serves as a painful reminder to token holders that revenue records do not automatically translate into token holder value (unless token science dictates so via buybacks or other methods).

🥩 Steak ‘n Shake’s Bitcoin strategy actually works

The burger chain is 91 years old It began accepting Bitcoin payments in May 2025 In all US locations. Since then, same-store sales have risen “significantly.”

Payment processing fees are reduced by 50% compared to credit cards via the Lightning Network. The company funneled all bitcoins paid from customers directly into its strategic bitcoin reserve rather than converting them to cash, formalized a $10 million treasury purchase in January, added another $10 million in April ahead of the Bitcoin 2026 conference, and just launched a bitcoin-themed milkshake. In March, the company began paying employees hourly wages Bitcoin reward of 21 cents per hour Funded from the reserve.

Chief Operating Officer Dan Edwards describes the model as a self-reinforcing cycle: Customers pay in bitcoin, sales rise, bitcoin revenue funds restaurant upgrades and employee bonuses, and better stores attract more customers. With 210 Bitcoins in its vault and counting, and sales increasing, Stake ‘n Shake is turning into one of Bitcoin’s biggest consumer success stories.

🌎 Total crypto and markets

• Major cryptocurrencies fell after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) odds of interest rate cuts in 2026 rose to 0; Bitcoin -2% at $76,000; Ethereum -3% at $2,260; SOL -2% at $83; HYPE -4% at $39
• Away (+3%) POL (+2%) and TRON (+1%) led the top movers
• oil +2% at $105; Gold +2% at $4,640
• Stock futures Turned green after Big Tech and Eli Lilly beat earnings
• Jacques Mahler Twenty-One Capital It rose on Wednesday After majority owner Tether proposed merging XXI with Strike and Bitcoin mining company Elektron Energy, consolidating treasury, mining, payments and capital markets into one public company; XXI owns 43,514 Bitcoin (about $3.3 billion), third among public companies
• Visa It has expanded to five more blockchains On Wednesday, it added Base, Polygon, Canton, Circle’s Arc, and Stripe’s Tempo to its stablecoin settlement beta project; The program has reached an annual run rate of $7 billion, up 50% from last quarter
• com.MoonPay Acquired Israeli company Sodot for $100 million in equity and used the deal to launch MoonPay Institutional, a new division for banks and asset managers led by Caroline Pham, former acting head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
• It was Alex Mashinsky Permanently banned from encryption Under the Federal Trade Commission’s $10 million settlement on Wednesday; A $4.72 billion judgment was issued but has largely been put on hold

Corporate Treasuries and ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders He was Very red DOGE -3%, SHIB -3%, PEPE -5%, PENGU -6%, TRUMP -4%, BONK -4%, SPX -7%, FARTCOIN -7%
• I wish (+71x), CV (+33%) and gelding (+15%) were the leading movers

💰 Token tracking, airdrop and protocol

• MegaythMEGA token For the first time this morningopening at $0.18 and a market cap of $200 million ($1.8 billion FDV)
• Pump fun Launched charitable coins As a way to solve the problem of charity-related memes not getting to the right places
• Excess fluid Publication of fee structure For HIP-4 Wednesday, a predictive market proposal that allows users to trade binary outcome contracts within the same margin account as their existing accounts; There are no fees for an open position, and costs only apply upon closing or settlement

🚚 What happens in NFTs?

• NFT leaders It was green, led by bored monkeys; Punk Up at 30.9 ETH, BAYC +10% at 10.8 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 5.34 ETH; Hypurr even in 350 HYPE
• Azuki items (+25%), Kodas (+22%) and MAYC (+12%) led the top movers