Bitcoin's Rally Loses Momentum as Wall Street Grapples with Rate Cut Implications

In a significant turn of events, Bitcoin's year-end surge lost steam on Monday, closing at $94,000 after US markets wrapped up at 4 p.m. ET. The cryptocurrency had hit $106,000 earlier this month amid optimism about the incoming administration's pro-crypto stance.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is grappling with the implications of the Federal Reserve's recent rate cut meeting. Although the Fed delivered a widely expected quarter-point rate cut, it scaled back projections for further cuts next year, triggering a selloff that has been worsening despite the decline.

Despite this, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are poised to end the year with gains, with the Nasdaq leading at over 32 percent growth as of Monday's close. Investors remain optimistic about the year ahead, citing strengths in consumer spending and corporate earnings.

In other news related to financial institutions, shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac surged on Monday after investor Bill Ackman predicted that President-elect will privatize the mortgage firms. Ackman anticipates they could return to private ownership and potentially relist by 2026, ending government conservatorship.

However, BlackRock is facing increased scrutiny from regulators. The FDIC has pressed BlackRock to adopt stricter compliance measures when it holds over 10 percent of shares in midsized banks. The $11.5 trillion asset manager has until January 10 to respond to the proposal, which reflects concerns about their influence on markets.

In a striking development, South Korea issued an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol following his impeachment over the brief imposition of martial law on December 3. This marks the first time in the country's history that a sitting president has been targeted by such a warrant.

Finally, the US Treasury Department suffered a major cyberattack through a third-party provider, BeyondTrust, earlier this month. Reuters reported that Chinese state-sponsored hackers exploited a key security vulnerability to gain access to certain workstations and unclassified documents within the department's systems.