Incoming voter on interest rate policy, Cleveland Fed's Hammack says no more cuts

Markets Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email Incoming voter on interest rate policy, Cleveland Fed's Hammack says no more cuts "My base case is that we can stay here for some period of time," Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack told the WSJ. By Stephen Alpher Dec 21, 2025, 3:11 p.m. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack (Cleveland Fed) What to know : Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack, who in 2026 will be a voter on the central bank's policy-making FOMC, says interest rates need to stay on hold for several months. She threw shade on last week's surprisingly soft CPI report, noting data-collection distortions created by the government shutdown. Other things being equal, bitcoin would typically benefit from easier Fed monetary policy, but that hasn't at all been the case in 2025. It's no secret that Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack has staked out a spot as perhaps the most hawkish member of the U.S. Federal Reserve since her appointment in 2024 after a career at Goldman Sachs. Next year, however, she will be in a more prominent position to advance those views. The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) sets interest rate policy. Among its twelve voting members are four of the Fed's eleven district presidents who serve rotating one-year terms. In 2026, the head of the Cleveland Fed — Hammack — will join that voting group. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . "My base case is that we can stay here [with rates] for some period of time, until we get clearer evidence that either inflation is coming back down to target or the employment side is weakening more materially," Hammack told the WSJ over the weekend. "I take it with a grain of salt," said Hammack of last week's November Consumer Price report, which showed a shocking decline in the headline rate of inflation to 2.7% from 3.1%, with a similar drop for the core rate. Hammack blamed data distortions due the last fall's government shutdown, and her own calculation puts the rate at more like the 2.9% or 3.0% that economists had previously forecast. All things being equal, easier central bank monetary policy is assumed to be good for risk assets like stocks, commodities and bitcoin BTC $ 87,997.00 . While that's surely been the case this year for stocks and commodities like gold and silver — all of whom are at or near record highs — bitcoin has struggled, beginning a tumble from its own all-time record not long after the Fed's first rate cut in September. A big break with Waller Among the finalists to be President Trump's pick for the next Fed chair is current Fed Governor Chris Waller. Waller three days ago said he judges the current 3.5%-3.75% level of the fed funds rate range as 50 to 100 basis points above the neutral level — meaning Fed policy remains fairly restrictive. Hammack, though, told the WSJ that the fed funds range today is "a little bit below" the neutral rate, meaning she thinks current policy is at least somewhat stimulative. That's a massively wide delta between two of 2026's key policy-setters. Wherever rates go in 2026, there are sure to be dissents on what is typically a unanimous or near-unanimous vote. Whoever ends up Fed chair could find it problematic to line up the seven votes needed at each meeting to set policy. Bitcoin News Federal Reserve Interest Rates More For You Protocol Research: GoPlus Security By CoinDesk Research Nov 14, 2025 Commissioned by GoPlus What to know : As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M. GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month. Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B. View Full Report More For You ‘DeFi is dead’: Maple Finance’s CEO says onchain markets will swallow Wall Street By Will Canny | Edited by Aoyon Ashraf 1 hour ago The Maple Finance CEO says institutions will stop distinguishing between DeFi and TradFi as private credit moves onchain, and stablecoins process $50 trillion in payments. What to know : Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell argues “DeFi is dead” as a separate category, predicting all capital market activity will eventually settle on blockchains. Tokenized private credit, not tokenized treasuries, will be the main growth engine for onchain finance, with DeFi market cap on track to reach $1 trillion. Powell expects a high-profile onchain credit default and a surge in stablecoin payments to $50 trillion in 2026, driven by small businesses and neobanks seeking lower fees. 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