Bond Vigilantes, AI Agents and The Stablecoin Takeover - CFB 2025 Outlook Special

Recorded 19 December 2024.

The final CF Benchmarks podcast episode of the year is the perfect companion for exploration of our research team’s 2025 Market Outlook Report, which is picking up a lot of well-deserved media attention right now! Join Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA, and Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, as they unpack the highlights with Head of Content, Ken Odeluga.

• Get our analysts’ reaction to the Fed’s ‘hawkish pivot’ last week, which upended policy expectations and triggered a big volatility spike. How much has the rate outlook really changed? And what are the implications for markets?
• The Bond Vigilantes are back! How will the Fed react as these influential participants flex their muscles?
• As for crypto in 2025 - we’re set for another exciting year. Listen in as our research team breaks out the highest-probability themes:
  • Implications of a huge ramp up in blockchain scalability, with transactions per second starting to outpace legacy infrastructure speeds
  • How the TradFi-crypto convergence could be fuelled by a 50% surge in stablecoin growth to $300 billion by end 2025
  • Meet your new crypto AI Agent
  • Why RIAs are set to take over as the dominant holders of crypto ETFs from hedge funds
  • The Regulatory Reset - key bills to watch in 2025: The Bitcoin Act, FIT21, Loomis - Gillibrand, and others

* Clarification of comments on net fund flows (27:40):

“$37 billion” refers only to total flows into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF. For precision, BlackRock’s IBIT achieved nearly $53 billion in AuM within 11 months post-launch. As of December 2024, total U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF AuM was around $105 billion.