Wintermute: Retail Rotation into Major Coins, Buyer Pressure Stronger than Seller

**December 23rd Market Update: Precious Metals Rally to New Highs; Gold Targets Lifted to $6k (2026) & $10k (2029)** Precious metals extended their gains on December 23rd: - Spot gold currently trades at $4,489.6 per ounce, marking its 50th all-time high this year and a year-to-date rise of over 70%. - Spot silver broke above $70 per ounce today, hitting a fresh peak with a roughly 135% year-to-date surge. Wall Street independent research firm Yardeni Research raised its gold price targets today: it now forecasts gold to reach $6,000 by end-2026, and still expects the metal to hit $10,000 by end-2029. Separately, after China rolled out a new gold tax policy in November 2025 (which lifted consumer gold costs), upstream tax burdens on non-investment gold (e.g., jewelry) rose by ~7%—driving a short-term jump in retail gold prices. Shuibei, China’s largest gold-jewelry wholesale hub, has also adjusted its gold pricing labels multiple times, no longer distinguishing between “in

On December 23rd, the initial estimate of U.S. third-quarter annualized real GDP growth (inflation-adjusted) hit 4.3%—up from Q2’s 3.8% rate. This marks a strong surge in U.S. GDP growth, reaching its fastest pace since Q4 2023.

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (CoinDesk) — Amplify ETFs has launched two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to give investors exposure to stablecoin and tokenized asset backers, plus cryptocurrencies. The funds are: - **Amplify Stablecoin Sharekhan ETF (ticker: STBQ)**: Tracks the MarketVector Stablecoin Sharekhan Index, holding 24 assets with primary spot exposure to XRP, SOL, ETH and LINK. - **Amplify Tokenization Sharekhan ETF (ticker: TKNQ)**: Focused on real-world asset digitization, it follows the MarketVector Tokenization Sharekhan Index and holds 53 assets. Both ETFs list on NYSE Arca.

December 23rd: U.S. Q3 Preliminary Core PCE Price Index (Annualized Quarter-over-Quarter) comes in at 2.9% — matching expectations of 2.9% and up from the prior reading of 2.6% (FXStreet)

**December 23: Initial estimate shows U.S. third-quarter real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) rose 3.5% quarter-over-quarter—surpassing expectations of 2.7% and topping the prior quarter’s 2.5% reading, per Forex Factory.**

December 23: The initial estimate of the U.S. third-quarter real GDP annualized growth rate is 4.3%, exceeding the expected 3.3% and up from the previous reading of 3.8%, per Xinhua News Agency.