Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was asked during Wednesday's post-FOMC press conference whether he had any comment on reports that Cnews's fully diluted market capitalisation had briefly exceeded Portugal's annual GDP of approximately $287 billion.
The chairman paused for approximately three seconds, an eternity in Fed-speak, before responding: "The Federal Reserve does not comment on individual digital assets, memecoins, or tokens of any kind. Our focus remains on our dual mandate of maximum employment and stable prices."
He then, according to three separate reporters present in the room, "briefly smiled."
"I've covered the Fed for twenty years. That was a smile. I know what Jerome Powell's face looks like when he's amused, and that was it. He smiled about Cnews. This is the most significant Fed communication since the taper tantrum."
— Senior financial journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity
The Portugal Comparison
The comparison to Portugal's GDP — while technically accurate for approximately 47 minutes on Tuesday evening — requires significant context. Cnews's "market cap" is calculated by multiplying its current price by its total token supply, a metric that crypto analysts acknowledge can be misleading, particularly for assets with concentrated holdings and limited liquidity.
Nevertheless, the milestone was celebrated extensively by the Cnews community, which created a dedicated Telegram channel called #bigger-than-portugal and briefly changed the token's unofficial motto to "Cnews: The Eleventh-Largest Economy in Europe."
Portugal's finance minister, when asked for comment, said simply: "No comment." Portuguese crypto Twitter, meanwhile, was divided between pride and confusion.
Behind Closed Doors at the Fed
Sources within the Federal Reserve system describe a growing awareness of — and fascination with — the Cnews phenomenon among central banking staff. While no official position has been taken, internal memos obtained by the Financial Cat Times reveal that:
• The New York Fed's Markets Desk has added Cnews to its "monitoring list" of digital assets that may have systemic relevance
• A junior economist at the Richmond Fed submitted a paper titled "Meme Velocity and Monetary Transmission: Evidence from Cnews" that was returned with the note "interesting but unpublishable"
• The Fed's official cafeteria in Washington briefly offered a cat-shaped "CAT Special" cobbler before it was removed for "potentially constituting an endorsement"
The Smile That Launched a Thousand Trades
Chairman Powell's brief smile — real or perceived — triggered an immediate 23% spike in Cnews's price, as traders interpreted the facial expression as implicit endorsement. The token's Telegram group flooded with messages including "Powell is bullish," "the Fed just endorsed us," and "WE ARE LITERALLY THE FEDERAL RESERVE NOW."
Financial analysts were quick to caution against over-interpreting the chairman's expression. "A smile is not monetary policy," noted one strategist at Deutsche Bank. "Although, in the current market, I'm honestly not sure anything means what it used to."
The Fed's next meeting is scheduled for september , 2026. Cnews holders have already begun a campaign to flood the Fed's public comment system with requests to "acknowledge the cat." As of press time, the campaign had generated 47,000 submissions.
Alexander Yield-Curve covers central banking and macro policy for the Financial Cat Times. He previously worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which he left "for vibes-related reasons."