U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%); U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its December 9-10 policy meeting at 3 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday, December 31, revealing details of escalating internal divisions among policymakers. Amid dual pressures from inflation and the labor market, the Fed’s next moves are growing increasingly opaque. The Fed’s 25-basis-point rate cut in December drew three dissenting votes: two from regional Fed presidents who argued no cut was needed, and one from Governor Milan — who has been the sole advocate for a 50-basis-point cut three times since joining the central bank in September. Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted after the meeting there was “strong disagreement about which risks should be our policy focus.” Looking ahead to 2025, policymakers are even more split on interest rate direction, with some saying no further cuts are warranted. Of the Fed’s 19 policymakers, six project a 3.9% year-end 2025 rate — a level higher than the current post-cut rate.

On December 30, Trust Wallet issued an update regarding a security vulnerability in its Browser Extension (version 2.68). The incident impacts users who opened and logged into the Trust Wallet Browser Extension v2.68 between December 24 and 26. Users who received a push notification via the Trust Wallet mobile app or saw a security event banner on the browser extension may still be using a compromised wallet. A total of 2,520 wallet addresses have been confirmed affected, with funds stolen by the attacker. The total value of affected assets is approximately $8.5 million, linked to 17 wallet addresses controlled by the attacker. Trust Wallet has decided to proactively compensate affected users. It is finalizing the compensation process and ownership verification procedures, and has begun reaching out to victims contacted in recent days. Affected users are requested to submit claims via the official support form.

**Market Brief (Dec 30) — Greeks.Live’s Adam** Crypto community sentiment leans toward the current market being in a bear phase, with expectations for 2-3 months of consolidation post-bottom. A full bull market isn’t likely until after Christmas 2026. Market consensus centers on BTC’s three-year bull cycle—but that retail investors struggle to profit from it. Traders are also watching whether the deflationary environment will see meaningful easing. Some traders argue crypto (framed as an AI-era production relationship) will trade in a wide range short-term and won’t rally until AI sees significant implementation.

December 30th – Binance Co-CEO He Yi shared his views in an interview about “Binance Alpha to Break Out in 2025” today: “Eggs and toilet paper never go out of style. Like supermarket promotions that hand out these items, every generation has its own key focus—and maybe our generation’s is Binance Alpha. Alpha’s original intent is to provide more opportunities and resources to those willing to help others and share rewards with users.”

December 30th: Per OnchainLens data, wallet 'bc1qw' withdrew 400 Bitcoins worth $35.18 million from Binance. Over the past two days, the wallet has amassed 2,000 Bitcoins valued at $177.23 million.

On December 30th, per HTX market data, Bitcoin rebounded above $89,000, posting a 24-hour gain of 1.66%.