It's the start of a new cycle everyone waited for: the interest rates cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve. In this article, I discuss this theme with some takeaways from this year.

A relief for investors

The figures of the inflation are coming close to the target range of 2%, leading to a soft landing. As a consequence, central banks are cutting their interest rates. The most watched institution is the Federal Reserve. Earlier in the month, the U.S. Fed cut its interest rates by half a point, as analysts expected a quarter. This move means a more aggressive tone from the Fed.

This move changes many things for investors. The banking institutions can lend with lower interest rates. The real estate sector, moving more on this kind of cycle, will be more attractive. As for the financial products, risk-on assets are more attractive too such as growth stocks like tech and, of course, crypto.

This relief is shadowed by the fear of an incoming recession, as the confidence of investors is down below 100 earlier in the week. The recession issue is on the table, as the decreased interest rate from the Fed should was expected by the market: is this move from the Fed too late or too early?

The ETFs: a market switching hands

In my last article, I put on the table two catalysts: the halving of Bitcoin and the approvals by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commissions (SEC) of Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs changed the story of the investing books. Grayscale dominated the leader board as the most attractive institutional product for Bitcoin, now it is the Spot Bitcoin ETF of Blackrock.

To go further, Blackrock has invested massively in the blockchain sector since its Spot Bitcoin ETF was approved with a tokenized platform named BUIDL and favorable says about crypto from its CEO Larry Fink.

Blackrock has boosted the process of approvals of the Spot Bitcoin ETFs, changing the expectations, and the position of the institutional investors in the retail market of the Bitcoin holders, as Microstrategy and ARK Invest were seen as nerds.

This marks a change of a retail market into a more institutionalized one. Now, here it is.

What is next?

The next step is coming close day by day. It is the Presidential election in the United States of America. As Donald Trump spoke at the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, he voiced pro-crypto policies such as the right of self-custody like owning a cold wallet (maybe a tax cut for this use of ownership). As for Kamala Harris, Anthony Scaramucci, former Donald Trump's White House communications director, said recently he is helping the Democratic nominee to have a platform on this issue. Lastly, Kamala Harris talked about the crypto market as an 'opportunity economy' which she will let thrive if elected.

Another theme has emerged: Artificial Intelligence. We know some crypto assets such as FET which gained success through this wave. Binance dedicates an entire category on the theme. But the compliance is always on the track as disruptive success is ongoing. The project Worldcoin is an illustration.

Conclusion

As 2024 is going, many themes, expectations, events, disruptions moved on. We all wait for a bull run which shakes our wallet, but the road is long as a new American administration with promises is waited and a more mature market dominated by institutional investors took over the crypto market with the ETFs.

The crypto market never sleeps, but plays by the rules of its peers now as this year shows this clearly.