dec

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr stated that the Fed should be prepared to raise interest rates if inflation does not decline.He warned that the inflation rate has remained above target for more than 5 years, and there is a risk of entrenched price pressures. Barr indicated that if upcoming data shows inflation is cooling, policymakers can afford to be patient.In a speech at an event in Washington on Tuesday, Barr said, "If the data trends give me confidence that inflation is easing and moving toward the 2% target, then I think we can take a little more time to assess the policy stance. But if inflation does not appear to be cooling sufficiently, then I think we should take decisive action to raise interest rates."

According to the data panel on the ChainCatcher official website, regarding BTC wallet balances, in the past 7 days, among the top 10 exchanges by balance, OKX had the largest increase at 0.86%; Bybit had the largest decrease at 3.07%.In terms of exchange asset transparency proof, the top three for net outflow of reserve assets were Bybit (-$119 million), Bitget (-$88.7415 million), and Bitfinex (-$31.471 million); for net inflow, Binance had the highest inflow at $8.85 billion, followed by OKX (+$7.67239 million) and Deribit (+$4.03394 million).

The UK government has released the first official statistics on taxable crypto asset gains, revealing that in the 2024-25 tax year, 240 individuals reported capital gains exceeding £1 million, totaling £717 million, which accounts for more than half of the total £1.38 billion reported by 17,600 individuals. The HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stated that 17,600 individuals reported crypto asset disposal gains of £13.8 billion, with taxable gains of £1.38 billion, averaging about £78,000 per person; of these, approximately 87% were male and 13% were female.Selling, exchanging, consuming tokens, or gifting assets to others may trigger tax obligations. HMRC has sent out 81,000 crypto tax letters in the past 12 months, an increase of 25% from about 65,000 letters, approaching the 27,714 letters sent in the 2023-24 tax year. James Murray, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Director of Payments, stated that crypto asset gains are subject to tax just like other gains. The UK plans to adjust the tax treatment of certain DeFi transactions starting from April 6, 2027, with related lending and liquidity pool transactions typically deferring capital gains tax until an economic disposal occurs, expected to affect about 700,000 individuals. HMRC estimates that its crypto tax compliance and education activities have generated an additional £168 million in capital gains tax for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Bloomberg's chief economist Anna Wong stated that next week's non-farm payroll report may show weakness, with a certain probability of recording negative growth, which will have a critical impact on the Federal Reserve's policy path.She pointed out that if there are two consecutive negative non-farm data, there is no precedent in modern Federal Reserve history for raising interest rates under such circumstances.

New York state officials warn that AI-generated content and fake cryptocurrency projects are making investment scams more deceptive. Investment scam losses exceed $8 billion, a 38% increase from 2024, with 144,041 consumers reporting losses, and the median loss per incident is $10,560. AI can be used to clone voices, forge videos, impersonate financial professionals, and create social media advertisements.New York Attorney General Letitia James has warned that scammers attract investors through deepfake endorsements of celebrities, fake cryptocurrencies, pump-and-dump schemes, and fraudulent trading platforms. Some fake platforms display forged account balances, earnings, and transaction records, allowing victims to withdraw small amounts to build trust, and then request additional funds or fees. New York state officials advise consumers to verify the identity of promoters, companies, and investment projects, and confirm the destination of funds. According to the FBI, reported losses from cybercrime amount to $20.877 billion, with complaints involving cryptocurrency losses totaling $11.37 billion. Common signs of scams include promises of high returns, unsolicited investment opportunities, high-pressure sales tactics, and projects lacking clear documentation.

According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin failed to effectively break through the $80,000 mark, with BTC/USD dropping to $78,442 on the Bitstamp platform, a decline of about 1% for the day, after Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Walsh delivered a cautiously toned speech in Jackson Hole. In his speech, Walsh reaffirmed the Fed's commitment to the 2% inflation target and downplayed the significance of the recent decline in CPI and PCE data.Walsh stated that although these broad inflation indicators have significantly retreated from their highs a few years ago, the progress over the past two years has been relatively modest. The better-than-expected PCE and CPI readings this summer do not indicate that the underlying trend has materially improved. He also noted that the forward guidance, a conventional practice introduced during the financial crisis, "is now outdated" and will not return in the future. U.S. stocks were not weighed down by his remarks, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indices both rising by about 0.5%.On-chain data shows that there is a dense resistance zone between the current spot price and $86,000, which suppresses upward momentum. QCP Capital analysis pointed out that even if the price breaks through, the derivatives market needs to support it by controlling funding rates and the growth rate of open interest. The key is whether the subsequent market movement is driven by spot participation or leveraged positions. As of the time of writing, BTC/USD has risen 26.35% this month, marking the best August performance since 2017.

According to Catcher Predict monitoring, in the "Federal Reserve September Decision" event on the prediction market Polymarket, the sub-market "No Change" option's winning probability has experienced significant fluctuations, dropping from 69.5% an hour ago to the current 54.5% (a fluctuation of 15%). Please note the impact of relevant breaking news.

According to Gate market data, since Federal Reserve Chairman Waller's speech, spot gold and silver have significantly retreated in the short term. Gold rebounded slightly after falling about 100 dollars from its high, reaching a low of 4530 dollars/ounce and currently reported at 4560 dollars/ounce; silver plummeted over 1 dollar during the day, hitting a low of 68.1 dollars/ounce and currently reported at 69.0 dollars/ounce.

According to Santiment Intelligence monitoring, since June 3, the ETH exchange platform balance has decreased from approximately 7.69 million to about 6.28 million, a reduction of about 1.4 million, representing a decline of about 18%. Since August 19, another approximately 275,000 ETH has flowed out of the exchange platform, bringing the current balance to the lowest level of this statistical period.During the same period, the BTC exchange platform balance has increased by about 0.25%, currently nearing recent range highs. In this regard, Santiment stated that the decline in ETH exchange platform balance has not stopped due to the price increase; while the ETH price has risen by about 27% since August 16, a large amount of ETH continues to flow out of the exchange platform.

According to Gate market data, Moderna's pre-market decline has expanded to 8%.

HPQ.N fell more than 8% in pre-market trading due to a decline in shipment volume and profit margins in its personal computer division for the third quarter.

CryptoQuant analyst Axel Adler Jr. pointed out that Bitcoin's two profit and loss indicators have reversed simultaneously in the past ten days. The 90-day realized profit and loss ratio has risen above 1 for the first time since the end of July (reaching 1.003 on August 26), and the unrealized loss ratio has decreased from 18.57% on August 16 to 7.35%, a drop of about 60%, marking the lowest level since May 11.The analyst stated that losses are no longer dominating the market, but the current readings are almost exactly at the breakeven line and need to be continuously confirmed. Historically, during the capitulation phase from 2022 to 2023, this ratio remained below 1 for 241 days, with a minimum drop to 0.368. The current loss pressure is still distant from historical deep capitulation. Both indicators show that holders' financial conditions have significantly improved compared to the low point in August, but true confirmation requires the realized profit and loss ratio to remain consistently above 1 and unrealized losses to stay low.

According to Glassnode analysis, Bitcoin has rebounded about 26% since the mid-August low, with a net inflow of $2.23 billion into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs during the same period, marking the strongest seven-day inflow of the year, with no single day of outflows. The amount of Bitcoin on exchanges has decreased, while various wallet sizes have simultaneously accumulated. The upcoming supply is concentrated in the $81,000 to $86,000 range, which overlaps with hotspot costs, re-listed sell orders, market maker gamma flips, and short liquidations.Glassnode states that this round of increases was ignited by the record short squeeze on August 19, with 85% of liquidations within the squeeze window being shorts, representing the largest single-day short liquidation since 2019 according to their statistical criteria. The open interest in futures has decreased by 11% in terms of coins, and the funding rate is close to neutral, indicating that the market is mainly driven by short stop-losses rather than new long leverage chasing the price up. Options pricing suggests that the market may maintain until late September, with attention on approximately $83,300 above and the $70,000 cost area and $62,000 to $65,000 support below.

XRP has dropped 6.23% in the past 24 hours to around $1.38, making it the token with the largest decline among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Previously, XRP surged from around $1 on August 18 to $1.69, an astonishing increase within four days, briefly touching the psychological level of $1.7.The pullback is mainly due to leveraged liquidations. XRP has still risen 35.55% over the past week, second only to Hyperliquid's 38.65% weekly increase. Notably, XRP-related ETFs have recorded net inflows for nine consecutive days, indicating that institutions have not withdrawn, and the issue mainly lies in the leverage aspect rather than capital outflows.After breaking through $80,000 on Tuesday, Bitcoin has retreated to around $78,000, dragging down the overall altcoin market. The market is awaiting tonight's core PCE inflation data and Nvidia's earnings report; whether XRP can hold the $1.4 support level will determine if this rally is a healthy correction or a further decline.

The Supernova upgrade of MultiversX decouples consensus from execution, allowing the network to reach consensus on blocks before processing transactions. Before the upgrade, block production followed a sequential model: proposers selected transactions, executed them locally, and submitted blocks containing the results, while validators had to re-execute the same transactions before voting, making execution part of the consensus critical path. Supernova changes this order: proposers select transactions and directly propose blocks without prior execution; validators can immediately vote once they confirm the proposal complies with protocol rules, while execution occurs asynchronously in the background, with execution results typically referenced and notarized in the next block header, lagging consensus by about one block (approximately 600 milliseconds).To address the validity verification issues brought by decoupling, Supernova introduces a virtual memory pool state that tracks pending nonces, expected balance consumption, and transactions that have been proposed but whose execution results have not yet reached consensus, providing proposers with a forward-looking account view. Meanwhile, the Execution-Result Inclusion Estimator (EIE) limits the number of execution results that can be referenced in a block based on the capacity that the minimum specification node can safely handle; an automatic backpressure mechanism reduces block capacity when execution lags. Supernova has been producing 600-millisecond blocks on the testnet and devnet since August 20, with the mainnet expected to activate on September 10, 2026.

At the 2026 Wyoming Blockchain Conference, Zhao Changpeng stated that Trump mentioned Hyperliquid and that Mike Selig, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will seek a path for the platform to enter the U.S. market.Zhao Changpeng believes that if this progress can be realized, it will be a significant boon for the entire cryptocurrency industry. Zhao stated that the outside world tends to view him as a supporter of centralized trading platforms due to his holdings in Binance, but the fundamental reason he entered the cryptocurrency industry is his belief in decentralization.He pointed out that some users choose Hyperliquid because the platform can be used through wallets without the need for traditional accounts and KYC processes; if Hyperliquid can operate in the U.S. in a compliant manner, it will open up space for perpetual contracts and more decentralized services to enter the U.S. market.He believes this is not only related to Hyperliquid itself. "Hyperliquid is just the tip of the iceberg; once this tip enters, other projects can follow suit." Related developments will benefit more decentralized products and their portfolio companies, and will also bring more liquidity to international centralized trading platforms, allowing U.S. users to obtain more competitive prices when buying and selling crypto assets.Zhao Changpeng stated that the current cryptocurrency market is far from saturated, so competition between platforms is not the main issue. Hyperliquid's entry into the U.S. will not only benefit itself but will also expand the market size of the entire industry, "what is beneficial for them will also be beneficial for us."

According to Coinglass data, the total contract open interest for BTC has decreased by 5.1% in the past 24 hours, with the current total open interest at $55.556 billion. Among them, the open interest for Binance is $11.098 billion, for OKX is $2.908 billion, for Bybit is $4.495 billion, and for Gate is $4.647 billion.

The decentralized perpetual contract protocol Lighter announced that its average block proof time has decreased from about 5.3 minutes to about 1 minute over the past month. This progress was achieved through two independent optimizations launched on July 23 and August 23. Lighter can now complete block verification faster, thereby increasing processing capacity, reducing infrastructure costs, and creating space for further expansion.The first optimization is the Heavy/Light decomposition. This solution splits the transaction circuit into light circuits and heavy circuits, allowing simple quote updates, which account for the vast majority of transactions, to only pay for light constraints, thus halving the proof time. The second optimization comes from the Prover backend optimization brought about by the proof competition held in collaboration with Eigen Labs, which again halves the proof time under the same circuit conditions. The first batch of optimizations went live on August 23, with more batches still in progress. Additionally, on August 10, all Schnorr signature verifications were incorporated into a single Plonky3 proof for each block, resulting in approximately a 20% improvement.The above optimizations are orthogonal and their effects are cumulative. The remaining competition optimizations are expected to bring about an additional 2x improvement, potentially reaching a total of about 10x compared to mid-July. Currently, Lighter's sustained processing capacity has exceeded historical peak loads, and the finality limit for withdrawals has been reduced from about 21-22 minutes to about 16-17 minutes, maintaining stability during peak traffic periods.