Just watched the Fed hold rates steady as expected, and honestly the shift in FOMC expectations over the past couple months has been wild. Remember back in November when people were pricing in a January cut? That was above 40% at one point. Now? Pretty much zero. Markets had basically locked in no change at 99% heading into today's decision.

So here's what's interesting - the FOMC basically confirmed they're keeping things tight through Q1 at least. Two dissents though, which is worth noting. Anyway, Bitcoin's sitting just under 74K right now after the announcement, stocks barely moved, dollar's up sharply, and gold's been climbing hard at around 5.3K an ounce.

The real question everyone's asking now is what Powell says in his presser at 2:30 ET. If he leans into that 'higher for longer' narrative or signals even fewer cuts coming in 2026, we could see some pressure on risk assets including crypto. Markets are only pricing in like 16% odds for a March cut, maybe 30% by April based on current FOMC expectations.

Also caught that XRP has been moving on decent volume with some whale accumulation, but it's still stuck in a downtrend overall. Rakuten integrating it into their payments app for 44 million users is interesting though - that's real utility being built out. Worth watching how that plays out.