Morning Minute: 📈 Robinhood Makes the S&P 500 While MicroStrategy Gets Skipped

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 mostly green, SOL leads; BTC at $112,000
• Forward Industries announces $1.65B SOL DAT led by Galaxy, Multicoin & Jump
• BMNR discloses 2.069M in ETH, first $20M ‘Moonshot’ investment in WLD DAT
• HOOD stock soars 9% pre-market after S&P 500 inclusion; MSTR left out
• Hyperliquid soars to ATH on back of USDH stablecoin announcement

📈 Robinhood Makes the S&P 500, MicroStrategy Gets Skipped

Friday was a big day for those companies entering the S&P 500.

While a major crypto favorite was once again left out.

📌 What Happened

S&P Dow Jones Indices said Robinhood (HOOD) will join the S&P 500 at the upcoming quarterly rebalance, replacing a departing constituent.

HOOD shares immediately popped 7% on the news.

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy (MSTR), despite checking all the requirement boxes, was not selected this cycle.

• Why HOOD fits: Size, liquidity, and a more diversified fintech model (brokerage, options, cash, card, crypto) make it a comfortable add for an operating-company index
• Why MSTR didn’t: Meeting basic requirements isn’t a guarantee; the committee uses discretion. MSTR still screens like a Bitcoin proxy more than a diversified operator and clearly has more to prove its merits as an actual company.

MSTR’s recent price action certainly isn’t helping its case, down 16% this month while Bitcoin is only down 3%.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

It’s an exciting milestone to have Robinhood join the storied S&P 500 Index. I’ll share what I told the team today — we don’t stop to celebrate, our single focus remains building exceptional products for our customers. – Vlad Tenev, Robinhood CEO

“Do you know which two companies didn’t make it into the S&P 500 last quarter despite meeting all the criteria? AppLovin and Robinhood. They were passed in June and both got in today on their second try. Same story with Uber and Tesla. Be patient. $MSTR will get there” – X user Angarlo

🧠 Why It Matters

First, the reason companies and their shareholders want to join the S&P is clear – huge rebalancing and ongoing inflows.

Getting added to the S&P is almost a lock guarantee for near-term stock price increases (barring other macro factors).

So it’s a big deal to be added.

As for HOOD making it in over MSTR, the decision signals the committee’s preference for platform exposure over asset proxies.

Robinhood’s inclusion validates a maturing, retail-first fintech that happens to have crypto in its product mix; it pulls another crypto-adjacent revenue stream directly into America’s most-tracked benchmark without making a call on any single token.

By contrast, MicroStrategy’s pass suggests the S&P still wants operating cash flows and business diversification when it chooses members.

For investors, the implication is straightforward: if you want crypto exposure inside the index, build a real business that uses it, don’t just warehouse it.

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are mostly green with SOL leading; BTC +0.5% at $111,800, ETH even at $4,300, XRP +4% at $2.94, SOL +5% at $214
• MYX (+235%), WLD (+17%), PENGU (+12%) and SPX (+12%) led top movers
• The ETH ETFs saw one of their biggest outflow days ever on Friday with $444M in net outflows
• Robinhood joined the S&P 500 on Friday, while Strategy was left out of the index
• The Senate Banking Committee finalized an updated market-structure bill draft, targeting late-September consideration
• Chainlink’s CEO said tokenization is accelerating after meeting SEC Chair Atkins, highlighting policy focus on on-chain assets
• The SEC and CFTC are weighing 24/7 financial markets to align with crypto’s round-the-clock trading

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are very green on the day; DOGE +7%, Shiba +3%, PEPE +3%, PENGU +13%, BONK +7%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +12%, and FARTCOIN +8%
• IRYNA ran 1,700% to $7M leading onchain movers; 67 (+28%) and CARS (+30%) were other 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 2% at $13.2B, leaders were mostly green
• FARTCOIN (+8%), VIRTUAL (+3%), TIBBIR (-4%), aixbt (+1%) & ai16z (+1%)
• BUZZ (+37%) and nuit (+13%) 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 mixed; Punks even at 48.9 ETH, Pudgy +3% at 10.25, BAYC -1% at 9 ETH
• Hytopia Worlds up 70% were a notable top mover
• Bitcoin NFT leaders were mostly flat / down on the week
• Abstract NFTs were mostly green on the week, led by Gigaverse ROMs (+30%) and OCH Heroes (+30%)
• A new PunkStrategy token from Rhynotic (PNKSTR) has already accumulated 39.9 ETH in fees after reaching a $2.5M market cap, just 9 ETH away from buying a Punk (which it will then relist at 1.2x the floor)