Fed cancels December rate cut, 18% chance of hike, slowing Bitcoin rally

The Federal Reserve just cut the policy rate by 25 basis points, moving the target range to 3.75% to 4.00%. However, futures markets have now removed the prospect of a further cut in December.

Before yesterday’s FOMC meeting, many traders expected a third rate cut because inflation had gradually eased, the labor market showed signs of softening, and the Fed had already begun easing.

While the Fed did cut this time, Powell emphasized that another cut in December is “not a foregone conclusion, far from it.”

Powell said.

“There were strongly different views today. And the takeaway from that is that we haven’t made a decision about December, and we’re going to be looking at the data that we have and how that affects the outlook and the balance of risks.”

According to CME FedWatch, probabilities shifted after the press conference from a near lock on an additional cut to a hold as the base case with a live hike tail, and rate path distributions across 2026 moved up and flattened.

The adjustment leaves crypto facing a stickier liquidity backdrop, tighter sensitivity to incoming macro data, and wider dispersion across tokens.

According to FedWatch, January 2026 retains a hike tail near 18.5 percent, which reflects persistent concern that sticky inflation could pull the Committee toward a reversal if data do not cool.

The longer-run path repriced higher. FedWatch distributions through 2026 collectively shifted roughly 25 basis points upward and flattened, with modal outcomes clustering around 3.00% to 3.25% through mid- and late 2026 and persisting into 2027.

Prior snapshots showed a tilt toward 2.75% to 3.00% late in 2026. The profile implies fewer and later cuts, and a market view that the neutral real interest rate sits above earlier estimates.

The immediate market read-through for crypto ties back to liquidity and rates.

A higher-for-longer stance supports the dollar and keeps real yields firm, which has often weighed on high-beta risk and long-duration narratives tied to far-dated cash flows.

Bitcoin has tended to absorb that impulse with less drawdown than smaller capitalization tokens and alt-L1s. However, broad crypto liquidity, including stablecoin float and perp leverage, still reflects the same macro setting.

With balance sheet runoff ongoing and the policy rate elevated, the cost of capital within crypto ecosystems remains constrained, and treasury-bill alternatives pull some marginal demand away from basis and carry structures.

Flows become more data-dependent. Spot ETF and fund allocations are sensitive to swings in hike tails around major prints.

Upside inflation or hot labor data tends to lift near-term hike probabilities and pressure risk, while clear disinflation can reopen demand for duration and growth proxies.

That environment favors faster rotations between BTC and alts as probabilities move, with allocators leaning into higher-quality balance sheets and liquid pairs when uncertainty rises.

Policy uncertainty also reshapes the volatility regime.

A fatter hike tail widens the distribution of outcomes for crypto returns, and correlations to real yields and the dollar index often rise into key macro releases.

That pattern can increase dispersion within crypto, with projects anchored by more precise cash flow or fee capture holding up better than tokens with far-dated tokenomics and heavy emissions.

Funding markets may cheapen as the risk-free anchor rises, and miners face higher discount rates for capex and future cash flows, which places attention on power costs, leverage, and treasury mix.

Scenario mapping over the next one to three months centers on three paths.

The base case is a December hold near 70 percent odds on the latest snapshot, with growth cooling and inflation not yet soft enough to invite another quick cut. Under that setup, real yields stay firm, equities and crypto trade choppy ranges, and BTC performance skews toward resilience versus high-beta alt exposure.

A hawkish surprise, defined as a 25 basis point hike in December or January from the aggregated 20 to 30 percent tail, would amplify risk-off pressure, lift the dollar, and compress valuations across long-duration crypto, raising drawdown risk for leverage-intensive segments while pushing flows toward cash-flowing infrastructure and quality L2s.

A dovish surprise, where core measures ebb convincingly, would allow cuts to creep back into mid-2026 pricing. The liquidity impulse would first lift BTC as the cleanest macro proxy and then broaden if the soft-landing narrative strengthens.

Portfolio construction in this tape often prioritizes liquidity management, basis calibration, and convexity.

Given its depth and cleaner macro beta, BTC remains the most direct instrument for tactically expressing shifts in policy odds around CPI, PCE, and labor reports. Within alts, dispersion screening around the runway, emissions, and fee capture matter more when the risk-free anchor is higher.

For miners, sensitivity to power pricing and balance sheet leverage becomes a larger driver of equity-linked tokens and revenue sharing, and forward hedging costs need to be weighed against spot upside optionality.

“The cut landed, but the pivot did not, and traders now lean higher for longer through 2026.”

According to CME FedWatch, the repricing is visible across the entire curve of meeting outcomes, with the December 10 meeting now presenting a hold as the base case and a non-trivial hike tail.

Per the Federal Reserve, the benchmark move delivered the cut, while communication kept the easing path slow and conditional. The December meeting now enters focus with a hold as the central probability and a live hike tail.

FedWatch probabilities are implied from futures and update intraday. Snapshots here reflect the attached tables at the time of capture.

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