Tether just reported a much bigger safety cushion.
Tether is the company behind USDT. USDT is a stablecoin, a type of crypto meant to stay close to $1, so people use it to move value without the usual crypto price swings.
In its third-quarter report, released on 30 October, Tether said its excess reserves reached $7.95 billion on 30 September. That is the extra amount left after counting what it owes. It was $4.1 billion at the end of June.
The company also reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit for the quarter, the same as the quarter before. Across the first nine months of 2026, that profit totalled $4.5 billion.
In total, Tether held $191.5 billion in reserves against $183.5 billion in liabilities, which is what it owes. USDT in circulation held broadly steady at about $184 billion.
What is still unknown is what the figures look like now. This report is a snapshot from 30 September, checked in an attestation by accounting firm BDO. It is not a live November update.
Source: Tether Q3 2026 BDO attestation, 30 October 2026.
Does a bigger reserve cushion make you trust a stablecoin more, or do you look at something else first?
Brazil's crypto licence rush: at least 63 firms filed before the deadline
Brazil has just closed the door on the first stage of its new crypto licensing system. And a lot of firms rushed through it in time. A virtual asset service provider, or VASP for short, is a company that lets people trade, hold or send crypto. In Brazil, those firms now need formal permission from the country's central bank, the Banco Central do Brasil, to keep operating. What happened Brazil's central bank published its new crypto rules in November 2025. They took effect on 2 February 2026. Firms that were already offering crypto services then had 270 days to file the first part of their application. That deadline was 30 October 2026. By that deadline, at least 63 crypto operators had filed, according to BlockNews, based on monitoring by Cainvest. The count was updated at 8:05 p.m. local time. Around ten more applications that came in during the final hours had not yet been counted, so the real total could be higher. Among the firms named by BlockNews are Bitget, Kraken, BTG Pactual and Banco Rendimento. OSL Brasil separately confirmed on 30 October that its own subsidiary had filed. Before the deadline, Binance had applied on 23 October and Coinbase on 28 October, according to Unchained's reporting. Filing is only the start, though. It is not a licence. The central bank still has to check each application, and it can ask for more documents at any stage. OSL said this plainly in its own announcement: filing does not guarantee approval. Firms that filed on time can keep offering their services while the review runs. But they cannot change how they operate in the meantime. Firms that missed the deadline must stop those services within 30 days of the cutoff. Then comes a second date, and it is separate from the application itself. From 6 November 2026, banks, payment firms and other firms supervised by the central bank will not be able to carry out or help with crypto market operations for providers that are not authorised in Brazil, except in cases the rules expressly allow. That change comes from Resolution BCB 589, which amended the earlier rules. Why it matters Brazil is Latin America's largest economy, and it is one of the world's biggest crypto markets. So a licensing system there affects a lot of users, not just a handful of firms. For everyday users, the shift is simple to understand. Before, many firms could serve Brazilian customers without this kind of central bank permission. Now, permission is the route to staying in the market. For firms, the next job is no longer meeting a deadline. It is passing the review, keeping their paperwork in order, and keeping their banking relationships working under the new 6 November rule. What is confirmed The 30 October deadline for first-phase applications is confirmed in the central bank's rules, and the 6 November banking restriction is confirmed in Resolution BCB 589. At least 63 applications were known by 8:05 p.m. local time on the deadline day, based on Cainvest monitoring reported by BlockNews, with around ten more not yet counted. OSL Brasil confirmed its own filing on 30 October. Firms that filed on time may keep operating during the review, and firms that missed the deadline must stop those services within 30 days. What is still unknown The 63 figure is not an official central bank total. The central bank has not published a full list, so the final count, and which firms filed, may change as more reports come in. No approvals have been confirmed in these reports, and no decision dates have been given. There is also one point the sources do not clear up. One rule lets firms that filed on time keep operating while they wait. The updated banking rule, however, talks about providers that are not authorised, and does not expressly repeat the exception for firms still waiting for a decision. How the central bank will join those two rules together from 6 November onwards is not yet clear. Original source: SpazioCrypto, 1 November 2026, "Brazil Crypto Licensing: 63 Firms Apply to Banco Central" — https://en.spaziocrypto.com/regulation/brazil-crypto-licenses-63-firms-apply-banco-central/ — reporting BlockNews based on Cainvest monitoring; with Unchained, 29 October 2026, "Coinbase Files to Keep Operating Under Brazil's New Crypto Rules" — https://unchainedcrypto.com/coinbase-files-to-keep-operating-under-brazils-new-crypto-rules/ Do you think a clear licence list will make crypto in Brazil feel safer for everyday users, or just harder for smaller firms to keep up?
The Moscow Exchange is planning to start crypto trading on 1 December 2026, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT at launch.
The plan sits under a framework that took effect on 1 September 2026. Retail (non-qualified) investors would need to pass a test first, with purchases capped at 300,000 rubles a year per intermediary. Qualified investors are reported to face no such amount cap and wider asset access.
The December date is still a plan, not a confirmed launch — the exchange has said testing with professional participants is under way. One detail to watch: reports note USDT admission is still subject to the relevant implementing rules taking effect.
Do you think regulated exchange trading will bring more everyday investors into crypto, or will the caps and tests keep most activity elsewhere?
Illinois crypto tax rules could effectively ban DeFi, warn a16z, Uniswap Labs and DeFi Education Fund
What happened On 30 October 2026, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Uniswap Labs and the DeFi Education Fund submitted a letter to the Illinois Department of Revenue urging regulators to overhaul proposed rules for implementing Illinois' Digital Asset Tax Act. The groups warn that the proposed implementation could effectively prohibit decentralised finance (DeFi) activity in Illinois, while also creating serious security risks for users. Their central argument is about how decentralised exchanges (DEXs) are classified. The letter argues that the proposed rules incorrectly treat DEXs as conventional financial brokers. The groups say DEXs, including the Uniswap protocol, operate through autonomous software rather than as intermediaries that control customers' assets or execute transactions on their behalf. Unlike centralised exchanges, they argue, DEXs generally cannot identify customers, determine their locations, collect taxes, or file returns on individual transactions. Imposing those obligations, they say, would make compliance practically impossible. Why it matters If the proposed approach stands, the groups argue, DeFi services could face a de facto ban in Illinois — not because DeFi is named as banned, but because the compliance duties cannot be met in practice. A second concern is security. One controversial provision would require brokers to maintain records containing customers' private keys — the credentials used to authorise transactions and control digital assets. The signatories warn that collecting and storing those credentials could expose customer funds to theft if the records were compromised, and could force companies to choose between protecting customer assets and complying with state rules. The letter proposes replacing the term "private keys" with "public keys", which can be used to track blockchain transactions without granting control over customers' funds. The groups also object to provisions that could tax withdrawals from centralised exchanges to personal wallets and transfers of assets between blockchains, known as bridging. A16z policy head Miles Jennings compared that treatment to taxing someone simply for moving money between their own bank accounts. The groups ask regulators to explicitly exclude decentralised protocols and their interfaces from the definition of digital asset brokers, and to clarify that collecting automated protocol fees does not automatically establish broker status. What is confirmed - The letter was submitted on Friday, 30 October 2026, by a16z, Uniswap Labs and the DeFi Education Fund, as reported by Bitcoin.com News on 30 October 2026. - Illinois enacted its Digital Asset Tax Act in June, imposing a 0.2% tax on the value of qualifying cryptocurrency transactions and other covered digital asset activity. The levy is based on transaction value, not on profit. - Implementation has been postponed from 1 January to 1 July 2027, to allow litigation to proceed. - The Blockchain Association and Crypto Council for Innovation have challenged the law in court, raising concerns including overlapping taxation, constitutional protections and potential criminal penalties. What is still unknown / not confirmed - Whether the Illinois Department of Revenue will revise the proposed rules, exclude decentralised protocols, or change the private-keys provision to public keys. That decision has not been confirmed. - The outcome of the court challenges. A prediction by one industry figure that challengers will succeed is an opinion, not a ruling. - Whether the proposed rules would, as a matter of law, amount to a ban on DeFi. That is the groups' warning and argument, not a confirmed legal outcome. This article is news only and is not investment advice. Source: Bitcoin.com News, 30 October 2026 — https://news.bitcoin.com/regulation-and-legal/a16z-uniswap-warn-illinois-crypto-tax-rules-ban-defi/ Should decentralised protocols be treated differently from traditional brokers for tax reporting — and if so, how should that line be drawn?
News, 30 Oct 2026: The US SEC has charged BG Wealth Sharing Ltd. and DSJ Exchange Pty Ltd. in a complaint filed in the Northern District of California, alleging a crypto “wealth-sharing program” raised more than $130 million from tens of thousands of retail investors in more than 40 states and several US territories from at least October 2025 through June 2026.
The SEC alleges the firms pointed investors to Form ADV and Form D filings viewable on its website and to fake certificates bearing its seal, presenting them as proof of SEC approval. The SEC says those filings are not approval or a licence, and that the filings have since been removed. These are allegations in a complaint, not a court finding.
Key point: a public filing appearing in a database is not the same as regulator approval.
What check would you do before trusting a claim that a crypto firm is “SEC-approved”?
Solana to Host Hong Kong Dollar Stablecoin HKDAP in Planned Anchorpoint Collaboration
Anchorpoint Financial Limited and the Solana Foundation announced on October 30, 2026, that Anchorpoint plans to support native minting and redemption of HKDAP, its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, on Solana. The announcement marks Anchorpoint's first collaboration with a public blockchain foundation.
The planned integration is aimed at retail payments and trading in tokenized assets, with near-instant settlement. Anchorpoint says HKDAP would be created and redeemed directly on Solana, and made accessible through corporate partners and consumer applications.
The Solana Foundation will also join Anchorpoint's Tokenised Money Adoption Programme as a strategic partner, alongside PwC Hong Kong. The programme focuses on education, research and industry dialogue around tokenized money in Hong Kong's regulated stablecoin ecosystem.
An important detail: this is a plan, not a live service yet. No launch date for the Solana integration has been announced. HKDAP currently runs on Ethereum mainnet in a limited beta phase for corporate users and professional investors. Anchorpoint was licensed as a stablecoin issuer by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April 2026, and HKDAP carries a par value of one Hong Kong dollar per token. Anchorpoint's transparency dashboard reported about 103.1 million HKDAP in circulation as of October 30.
For context, the Solana Foundation estimates around $4.9 billion in tokenized real-world assets on Solana, held by more than 835,000 holders.
Source: Anchorpoint / Solana Foundation announcement, October 30, 2026 — https://coingape.com/solana-adds-hong-kong-dollar-stablecoin-hkdap-for-payments-and-tokenized-assets/
Would a regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin on Solana be most useful for everyday payments, or for tokenized assets? Share your thoughts below! 👇
US Spot Bitcoin ETFs See $643 Million in Net Outflows on October 30
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643.33 million in net outflows on October 30, 2026, according to SoSoValue data reported on October 31. The move ended a four-day run of net inflows into the funds.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for the largest share, with $233.70 million in net outflows, followed by Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) at $201.04 million. ARK 21Shares' ARKB saw $129.55 million, Grayscale's GBTC $53.32 million, and Bitwise's BITB $25.72 million.
In total, the funds still held $98.14 billion in net assets after the day's outflows, with cumulative net inflows since launch standing at $56.98 billion. Put in context, the October 30 outflow was about 0.7% of the funds' total assets.
US spot Ethereum ETFs also recorded net outflows the same day, of $156 million, marking their fifth straight day of outflows.
The outflow came a day after the major Binance security incident reported on October 30, but the flow data itself does not show why individual investors redeemed. The next daily flow figures, due on Monday, November 2, will show whether the redemptions were a one-day move or the start of a longer trend.
Source: SoSoValue data via BeInCrypto — https://beincrypto.com/investors-pull-643-million-bitcoin-etfs/
Do you read a single day of ETF outflows as a short-term reaction, or as a signal of a longer shift in investor sentiment? Share your thoughts below! 👇