US payrolls rose by 162,000 in August, exceeding forecasts of roughly 50,000, while June and July gains were revised up by a combined 55,000. Unemployment held at 4.1% despite a 683,000 increase in the labor force, pushing two-year Treasury yields up as much as eight basis points and lifting the market-implied probability of a 25-basis-point Federal Open Market Committee rate increase to 59%. The S&P 500 fell 0.38% and bitcoin dropped nearly 3% below $80,000. Earlier data showed 7.27 million JOLTS job openings and an ISM manufacturing reading of 54.6. Liquid Network, Blockstream’s Bitcoin sidechain, recovered 3,400 BTC, or about 85% of roughly 4,000 BTC withdrawn after an Elements software bug was exploited. The purported white-hat attacker returned the funds after Blockstream patched the vulnerability but retained about 598.5 BTC worth $47.3 million. Liquid’s bridge and SideSwap operations remain paused. Router Protocol will shut down by Sept. 30 and burn 303.3 million ROUTE tokens, while the US administration is pursuing a compliant access route for Hyperliquid. Brent crude traded above $97 and earlier at $99 after US-Iranian attacks on shipping, although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said prices could fall to $40-$50 after the conflict ends.