Fed's Schmid: Federal Reserve policy remains accommodative, inflation still above target

Chainalysis has released a report showing that the scale of global on-chain potential taxable cryptocurrency activity in 2025 reached at least $457 billion, covering gains from centralized and decentralized exchanges, plus income from mining, staking, lending, gambling, crypto payments, and other sources. Since transactions, staking, and lending activities within centralized exchanges cannot be directly observed on-chain, this figure may actually underestimate the size of the global crypto economy. By region, North America’s 2025 potential taxable crypto activity hit $134.6 billion, the EU $125.1 billion, and East Asia $54.7 billion. The U.S. ranked first among individual countries at $112.6 billion, followed by Germany at $24.1 billion. Chainalysis noted that a significant share of global crypto activity remains outside the scope of traditional tax information reporting systems. The OECD launched the Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) in 2022, with dozens of countries committing to start exchanging relevant information from 2027, and more expected to join in 2028 or 2029. However, only around 14% of 2025’s global on-chain potential taxable activity falls under CARF’s coverage; the remaining ~86% involves activities including DEX trades, peer-to-peer transfers, self-custody wallets, on-chain mining and staking income, lending income, and crypto payments. Additionally, CARF is not a retroactive system, and issues such as missing cost bases and transactions on offshore platforms may prevent tax authorities from accurately calculating taxable gains. Chainalysis said blockchain analytics can help tax authorities directly observe on-chain activities, track fund flows between wallets, identify transactions on offshore and decentralized platforms, reconstruct digital asset cost bases, and uncover income sources like mining, staking, lending, and liquidity provision, thereby filling the coverage gaps of CARF and traditional tax information reporting systems.

According to CoinGecko’s latest security report, the *2026 State of Crypto Security Report*, between January 2025 and July 2026, crypto platforms suffered total losses exceeding $36.3 billion across 245 security incidents, with the top 10 attack events accounting for over 72.5% of the stolen funds. The report notes that supply chain and infrastructure vulnerabilities remain the primary security risks for both centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) exchanges, with related losses exceeding $18 billion. Specifically, the most common risk for CEXs is private key leaks, while dApps saw approximately $546 million stolen due to smart contract vulnerabilities. Notably, among the 245 security incidents, 147 involved platforms that had completed independent security audits—making up roughly 60% of total incidents and corresponding to 88.44% of the total stolen funds. CoinGecko added that most attacks fall outside the scope of traditional audits, with common causes including external infrastructure issues, unaudited code updates, and governance attacks; only around 11% of incidents involved smart contract vulnerabilities covered by audit scope.

Revolut phased in the launch of its first euro stablecoin, EURR, on August 26, initially making it available to select customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal, with plans to expand access to other European Economic Area (EEA) regions later this year. EURR is legally issued by Bridge Building S.A., a subsidiary of Stripe’s Bridge, pegged 1:1 to the euro and redeemable at face value. It currently has a circulation of 369 units, backed by a €369 reserve. Boasting over 80 million retail customers, Revolut’s launch provides a key distribution channel for euro stablecoins.

According to official announcements, Lido has adjusted the fee structure of its EarnETH Vault: the fixed management fee has been cut from 1% to 0.2%, while the performance fee has been raised from 10% to 15%. Going forward, the maximum fees will be capped at a 0.5% management fee plus a 20% performance fee, with specific rates adjusted based on the Vault’s performance. The actual fees currently charged will remain displayed on the EarnETH Vault interface.

Today, Lewis Huang, chief analyst at Bitget CFD, stated during a live stream that this week’s U.S. PCE data and the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium will be the market’s key focus. Markets are not only watching whether the Federal Reserve will adjust interest rates, but also closely monitoring how it addresses persistent inflation above the 2% target, elevated long-term Treasury yields, and fiscal pressures. Huang noted that if core PCE comes in hotter than expected and the Fed signals it will maintain tight monetary policy or emphasize its fight against inflation, U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar could find support, while rate-sensitive assets like gold and the Nasdaq 100 may come under pressure. Conversely, if inflation data cools and officials signal a willingness to retain policy flexibility, markets may reprice for future easing, which would benefit gold, non-U.S. currencies, and growth stock indices. This round of PCE data largely met expectations, so the market’s focus has shifted to the Jackson Hole symposium. Additionally, Middle East tensions and Strait of Hormuz risks could still lift oil prices and inflation expectations. Traders should closely track the correlation between the U.S. Dollar Index, U.S. 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields, gold, and crude oil. After major data releases, it’s advisable to wait for the market to confirm its direction before acting, and avoid using high leverage to chase initial market moves.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned that future risks to oil and gas prices remain elevated due to geopolitical developments in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia. The ECB’s meeting minutes, released Thursday, show that while current oil prices “remain far below recent highs” and futures price curves have weakened, “oil prices will still be far above pre-war levels throughout the forecast period, signaling sustained upward pressure on oil prices with risks tilted to the upside.” Additionally, the ECB noted that the recent drop in oil prices “has not eased the medium-term inflation path reflected in market pricing,” adding that “inflation expectations remain anchored.” The ECB reaffirmed it will continue to fulfill its mandate to maintain price stability and “act in a timely manner” to achieve its medium-term 2% inflation target. (Jinshi)