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This Week’s Top Stories
“David Sacks says Clarity Act markup confirmed for January.” – Thursday, 19 December 2025
- The White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks communicated on Thursday that the Clarity Act is confirmed for January. He posted on X that they are closer than ever to passing the landmark crypto market structure legislation that President Trump has called for.
- The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is a bipartisan legislation that establishes a regulatory framework for digital assets, clarifying jurisdiction between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The bill passed the House of Representatives in July with strong bipartisan support.
“Unemployment Rate at four-year high last month & CPI came in lower than expected.” – This week
- In November, the U.S. unemployment rate increased to a four-year high of 4.6 percent, while the economy added more jobs than expected (64’000 vs 50’000). With one month left in 2025, the U.S. labor market is on pace for its weakest year of job creation since the job losses of 2020 and, before that, the Great Recession.
- The job slowdown in recent months has been the driving factor behind the Fed’s rate cuts during the last three meetings, but such policy changes often take time to have an effect on the economy.
- While the unemployment rate increased, the November CPI data came in lower than expected on Thursday this week. Economists expected a CPI of 3.1 percent, but the final figure came in at 2.7 percent, significantly lower.
- The odds for a rate cut in January increased slightly after the CPI data release. The chances for a cut, however, remain rather muted at 26.6 percent, up from 24 percent before the inflation data release.
“The race for the new Fed chair position is still on, but Hassett retook the lead this week.” – Tuesday, 16 December 2025
- Kevin Hassett has reclaimed the lead on Polymarket regarding who President Donald Trump will nominate as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, after briefly losing ground to former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh.
- At the beginning of November, the odds for Hassett were trading at 85 cents, but this week, Kevin Warsh briefly took the lead, as high-level figures around Donald Trump raised concerns about Hassett, with some believing he might be too close to Trump.
- Currently, the odds for Hassett are trading at 52 cents on Polymarket, while Warsh is at 28 cents and Christopher Waller at 14 cents.
A Quick Crypto Overview: A Rollercoaster Week
Looking back at this week’s price action, we can only say that it was a wild ride. On Wednesday, Bitcoin increased by more than 4 percent in a matter of a few hours, only to get slammed back down and lose almost 6 percent during the U.S. session. On Wednesday evening, Bitcoin bottomed around $85’000 and traded to the upside during the Asian and European sessions, increasing almost 5 percent. On Thursday afternoon, however, Bitcoin lost ground again and dropped almost 6 percent in a few hours, bottoming around $84’400. And guess what? At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading just below $88’000 again, up 4.5 percent. We would not be surprised to see Bitcoin correct again during today’s U.S. session, as it would make this week a perfect rollercoaster.
Bitcoin dominance is up this week, trading at its highest level since mid-November. Gold has traded rather flat this week, sitting just above $4’300 at the time of writing, just shy of a new all-time high, and it looks ready to trade higher. The S&P 500 lost some ground this week, bottoming on Thursday after a 3 percent drop since last Friday, but is currently up 1 percent since yesterday, likely due to the lower-than-expected inflation data in the U.S.
In the world of altcoins, times are hard, as most major altcoins are down between 10 and 20 percent over the past seven days. PUMP is leading the race to the downside with a decline of 32 percent, ASTER is down 28 percent, DASH is down 22 percent, and ENA is down 21 percent over the past seven days.
Chart of the Week: Bitcoin vs S&P 500
Bitcoin is trading at the same price versus the S&P 500 as it was before the U.S. elections last year, currently down 35 percent from this year’s high and 18 percent below the 2021 highs. We are now trading at a similar discount from the highs as we were in the summer of 2024, when we corrected 33 percent from the March 2024 highs against the S&P 500.
