The Ravenel--Wilson Hopf ring is an algebraic object which describes the homology of the spaces comprising the spectrum MU. It is characterized by a universal property in a 1-category. I will report on joint work with M. Hopkins, in which we (a) show that (a slight variant of) the Ravenel--Wilson Hopf ring satisfies a related universal property in an oo-category, and (2) can be used to described the motivic homology of the spaces comprising MGL.