Brazilian Congressman Introduces Bill to Allow Payment of Salaries in Bitcoin

The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting will be released at 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday. Market focus will likely center not only on the rationale behind the Fed’s 25 basis point rate hike in September, but also on officials’ assessment of how restrictive current financial conditions are and whether further rate increases will be needed. The Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index shows that U.S. financial conditions have remained loose since the fall of 2022 and are still on the looser end of the historical range. The option-adjusted spread of the ICE BofA U.S. High Yield Bond Index is also at historically low levels. Michael Kramer, founder of Mott Capital Management, argues that if the Fed focuses on these metrics, current financial conditions may not yet be deemed sufficiently restrictive. Meanwhile, U.S. headline PCE rose 3.4% year-over-year in August, while core PCE increased 3.0%. The current effective federal funds rate is around 3.9%, with the corresponding real rate standing at just roughly 50 basis points (based on headline PCE) or 90 basis points (based on core PCE) — significantly lower than the real rate level during Kevin Warsh’s tenure in mid-2006. Kramer noted that if the meeting minutes reveal officials’ discussions on financial conditions, real rates, and the pace of inflation cooling, it could help the market determine whether September’s rate hike was a one-off adjustment or the start of a new tightening cycle.

Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu stated at Singapore’s Token 2049 event that the crypto market’s recovery trend is expected to persist over the next 12 months, even as artificial intelligence (AI) attracts more investor attention and capital. She emphasized that the core of tokenization is not to compete with traditional retail trading platforms, but to leverage blockchain to expand global investors’ access to U.S. assets. Liu noted that roughly 160 countries worldwide currently make up only around 5% of global stock market capitalization, indicating massive untapped global growth potential for blockchain and tokenized assets.

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan stated at Token2049 that his team is exploring an on-chain asset tied to Polymarket’s economy and featuring genuine procedural utility, referring to it as “what the concept of a stock should have been.” Coplan also cautiously emphasized that this is not investment advice.

Crypto trader Frogman confirmed in a post on X that $4 million worth of his assets were stolen. He stated, “I’m not yet sure how this happened, but I’m currently in Singapore. I thank the teams and individuals assisting with the investigation, and I will share as much additional information as possible.” Early this morning, reports indicated that roughly $4 million in assets from Frogman’s wallet were transferred and sold, converted into ETH, BNB, and SOL, then dispersed via tools including Privacy Cash and Chainflip. The stolen assets cover 9 tokens, including 1.43 million BP (valued at ~$1.77 million), 13.96 million MarsCoin (worth ~$1.55 million), and 3.7 million Cash Cat (valued at ~$510,000). The hacked wallet address has been flagged.

Two of Frogman(@frogmanhaha)'s wallets were hacked, losing ~$4M! Including: 1.43M $BP ($1.77M) 13.96M $MARSCOIN ($1.55M) 3.7M $CASHCAT ($515K) and more. The attacker has swapped the stolen assets for $ETH, $BNB, and $SOL and laundered the funds.

According to on-chain data, shortly after Abstract’s shutdown announcement, a newly created address withdrew $1 million from Kraken, then rapidly purchased 25 Pudgy Penguins NFTs on the market. As of press time, the wallet still holds ETH worth $766,000. The floor price of Pudgy Penguins NFTs stands at 3.3 ETH as of press time, with a 24-hour increase of 6.8%. Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz stated in a post that Abstract is gradually shutting down, and its parent company Igloo Inc. will henceforth redirect all efforts to the development of Pudgy Penguins, Pudgy NFTs, and the PENGU token.