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 fall in overnight selloff, with damage accelerating this morning


• Bitcoin ended October red for the first time in 7 years


• Trump distances himself from CZ, says he “didn’t know” him


• Microsoft inks $9.7B deal with Bitcoin miner IREN


• Tether nets $10B in profits so far in 2025 after $1.1B Q3



💰 Tether Prints $10 Billion in Profit

Tether is the most profitable company nobody talks about.

And the stablecoin giant just posted numbers that would make most banks jealous.

📌 What Happened

Tether’s latest quarterly attestation showed $1.1 billion in profit for Q3 2025, bringing its year-to-date total to roughly $10 billion—a number that rivals Goldman Sachs and dwarfs Coinbase.

Almost all of it came from interest income on U.S. Treasuries, where Tether now holds $91B in reserves—more than countries like Brazil or Canada.

The company also confirmed new investments in Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure, underscoring its strategy to diversify profits beyond pure dollar-backed reserves.

On-chain, USDT’s supply now exceeds 122 billion, with nearly 70% issued on Tron and about 18% on Ethereum.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“With this attestation, Tether once again proves its leadership and financial resilience.” - Paolo Ardoino, Tether CEO

🧠 Why It Matters

Tether has ridden stablecoin growth to become one of the most profitable companies in the world. On a per-employee basis, they are probably #1.

A few implications to watch:

• Too big to fail? With $120 B+ USDT outstanding, Tether is now critical global infrastructure. Any hiccup in redemption or regulation could ripple through every exchange and L1.


• Cash machine. At current Treasury rates, Tether earns roughly $25–30M per day—a cash engine funding expansion into AI, BTC mining, and energy.


• Regulatory optics. Expect renewed scrutiny. A private company making $10B from U.S. debt without U.S. oversight will raise louder and louder questions (especially from the left).

Expect Tether’s empire to continue to grow, and any Tether-adjacent protocols or tokens to see a lot of demand (case in point, XPL).

And we will see if the rest of the stablecoin sector can ride its coattails…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are down big time after a Sunday night selloff; BTC -3% at $107,100, ETH -5.5% at $3,643, BNB -7% at $1,003, SOL -8% at $169


• ASTER pumped 25% after CZ posted that he had bought some of the token and plans to hold long-term, though it has since retraced most of the move


• Microsoft signed a deal to purchase $9.7B in AI cloud services from Bitcoin miner IREN (IREN stock +20% premarket)


• Trump distanced himself from CZ after his latest pardon, saying he “didn’t know” CZ


• Elon name-dropped Polymarket during his latest Joe Rogan podcast, showing more prediction market proliferation


• Bitcoin ended "Uptober" red for the first time in 7 years


• Balancer v2 pools were exploited for $110M+

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $191.6M in net outflows on Friday, with ETH seeing $98.2M in outflows


• The Solana Bitwise ETFs closed its first week with $197M in net inflows

In Memes

• Meme coin leaders are mostly red and closing a very red week; DOGE -7%, Shiba -6%, PEPE -10%, PENGU -9%, BONK -10%, TRUMP -1%, SPX -11%, and FARTCOIN -14%


• jelly jelly +145% was a top mover on Solana; kitkat +77% to $3.5M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

• Zcash unveiled its Q4 roadmap, focusing on improvements to privacy swaps and usability issues


• MegaETH is now in its allocation and refund phase, where ICO bidders will find out how much they received

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• NFT leaders were red and continuing a downtrend; Punks -3% at 37 ETH, Pudgy -4% at 5.9, BAYC -1% at 6.35 ETH; Hypurr’s -5% at 965 HYPE


• Good Vibes Club +17% to 0.435 ETH were a notable mover

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