What Happened in Crypto This Week: The Vanguard Effect and Rate Cut Expectations

In the week before the last interest rate decision of the year, several key developments helped shape investors' sentiment as 2025 enters its final lap. 

Crypto markets mirrored the broader financial jitters, with Bitcoin testing resistance levels, and regulatory and institutional moves that underscored both the sector’s growing maturity and its lingering vulnerabilities. From ETF inflows to fresh compliance crackdowns, the headlines kept traders on edge, setting the tone for a volatile close to the year.

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Institutional Moves of The Week

Texas-based manufacturer of powersports vehicles, Massimo Group, is another company turning to Bitcoin as a treasury asset. On Monday, the company announced it will build a Bitcoin treasury to diversify its assets -- a move which resulted in an 18% increase in its stock's value. 

Meanwhile, MicroStrategy went in the other direction. Holding the largest Bitcoin treasury in the world, among public companies, the firm reported that it was establishing a USD reverse, a move to pacify investors' worries about how exposed MicroStrategy is to Bitcoin. 

Twenty One Capital, one of the largest Bitcoin treasuries in the world, has finally gone public. The company entered NYSE on Wednesday after a merger, immediately becoming the largest Bitcoin company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Formerly a company that opposed crypto trading, Vanguard began to allow crypto ETF trading on its platform, marking one of the most significant shifts in the institutional mindset about crypto in history. Vanguard's venture into crypto exposure was one of the largest market movers of the week, as one of the most influential fund managers in the world, its entry signaled mainstream validation

Regulatory Moves of The Week

A Republican-led report from the House Financial Services Committee criticizing how U.S. regulators and banks treated crypto companies under the Biden administration.

Over in the U.K., lawmakers are considering a full ban on political crypto donations, worrying about potential foreign influence in the country's democracy. Meanwhile, Italy’s regulator has set a hard deadline: crypto firms must apply for MiCA authorization by December 30, 2025 or shut down.

Back to the U.S., a major regulatory pivot at the SEC: Rule 13f‑2 (short‑selling disclosure) is effectively dead, signaling the end of Gensler’s aggressive disclosure push.

Finally, the CFTC has launched the first listed spot crypto products on regulated U.S. exchanges, giving investors an onshore alternative with established safeguards. This marks a pivotal shift from offshore venues toward a framework that aligns digital assets with traditional markets.

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Macro in Focus

The end of Quantitative Tightening marks a potential shift in market liquidity, as the Fed will now stop actively reducing its balance sheet and allow maturing assets to stabilize rather than roll off.

On the verge of another potential rate cut, labor market and inflation data reinforced the idea that the Fed will cut interest rates by 0.25% on December 10. And while markets are heavily pricing another cut, rising yields are starting to show signs that this favoritism towards a dovish pivot may not last. 

This week, we also got further hints that former White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett may indeed become the next Fed Chair. With Jerome Powell's term ending in the mid-year, Hassett is the runner-up for the top job at the Federal Reserve. 

Hassett is known for its aggressive stance on monetary policy, favoring deeper rate cuts and a faster pivot toward easing. This stance was enough to make bond investors uneasy, arguing that his close ties with Trump could erode the confidence in an independent Central Bank, as well as arguing that overly-aggressive cuts could lead to stronger inflation.