Crypto Morning Brief: Hong Kong Passes Crypto Asset Tax Reporting Bill, Circle's Q3 Revenue and Reserve Income Reach $865 Million

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council passed the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and Revised Common Reporting Standard) Bill, implementing the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework from 2027, with service providers collecting prescribed information for exchange by the Inland Revenue Department with partner jurisdictions starting in 2028 and the revised Common Reporting Standard taking effect in 2028 with automatic exchanges from 2029. Circle reported Q3 2026 total revenue and reserve income of $865 million, up 17% year over year, with net income from continuing operations of $226 million, adjusted EBITDA of $317 million and diluted EPS of $0.84; reserve income fell 8% to $658 million as the reserve return rate dropped 61 basis points to 3.5%, while other income jumped 627% to $207 million, including $182 million from the ARC token presale. USDC average circulation was $73.3 billion, period-end circulation $73.9 billion, on-chain transaction volume $13.9 trillion (up 49%) and stablecoin market share 27%, with 7.3 million wallets holding more than $10 in USDC. The Hong Kong framework matters because it brings crypto service providers into the global tax-transparency perimeter, and Circle’s results will be watched for the durability of reserve income as rates fall and for how fast ARC and CPN-related revenue scale.