The Federal Reserve left its benchmark fed funds rate range unchanged at 3.50%-3.75% on Wednesday, extending its pause for a sixth consecutive meeting as policymakers continue to grapple with stubborn inflation.

“Inflation remains elevated relative to the Committee’s 2 percent goal, in part reflecting supply shocks that have driven price increases in certain sectors, including energy,” the policy statement read.

“Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace despite elevated uncertainty that owes, in part, to the conflict in the Middle East. Productivity growth and capital investment are strong,” the statement added. “Job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little.”

There were three committee members dissenting, preferring to raise rates by 25 basis points. Nine voted to keep policy in place.

Bitcoin climbed to above $64,400 following the decision, up over 1% over the past 24 hours. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq bounced, trimming earlier declines. Gold also rose, up 1.2% through the day.

The decision came after one of the most uncertain pre-meeting setups in years. Futures markets had assigned roughly a 65% probability to a hold and 35% odds of a quarter-point increase, according to CME FedWatch data.

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies barely moved after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, suggesting traders had largely prepared for the decision.

Fed keeps interest rates unchanged

Federal Reserve officials maintained the federal funds rate at between 3.5% and 3.75% following Chair Kevin Warsh’s second Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

Policymakers voted 9–3 for the decision, with the presidents of the Cleveland, Dallas and Minneapolis regional Federal Reserve banks preferring a quarter-point increase. Markets had assigned roughly a one-in-three chance to a hike before the announcement.

The Fed described economic activity as “expanding at a solid pace,” citing stable unemployment and job growth that has broadly kept up with changes in the workforce. However, it also acknowledged that inflation remained above its 2% target.

Warsh has avoided giving detailed guidance on future policy and has instead focused on current economic data. He has also created five task forces to examine the Fed’s communications, balance sheet, inflation framework, productivity, and labor-market analysis.

The widely expected hold removed the immediate risk of a surprise hike. However, the three dissents and persistent inflation mean uncertainty has shifted toward the September meeting rather than disappeared.

Bitcoin and top cryptocurrencies barely move

Bitcoin traded at about $64,129 after the announcement, up only 0.3% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum changed hands near $1,911 after gaining 0.6%.

Other large cryptocurrencies also recorded limited moves. BNB rose 0.4%, XRP gained 1.3%, Solana advanced 0.9%, and TRON added 0.6%. Hyperliquid and Dogecoin were up 1.4% and 1%, respectively.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased just 0.4% to approximately $2.27 trillion. The narrow price changes suggest the rate hold had been largely reflected in crypto valuations before the announcement.

Sentiment nevertheless remained cautious. The daily Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 29, within the “Fear” category, on July 29.

Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium also remained negative. A negative reading means Bitcoin trades at a discount on Coinbase relative to Binance, pointing to weaker U.S. spot demand compared with offshore markets.

Gold rises as crypto-linked stocks diverge

Safe-haven assets outperformed cryptocurrencies during the session. SPDR Gold Shares rose 1.25%, while the iShares Silver Trust gained 2.52% shortly after the Fed announcement.

Their performance showed that investors continued to seek defensive exposure amid inflation concerns and renewed Middle East tensions, even as the expected rate decision produced little direct volatility.

Crypto-linked equities delivered mixed results. Strategy gained approximately 2.1%, while Coinbase fell about 1%. Robinhood declined 1.7%.

Bitcoin miners suffered larger losses. MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark each dropped roughly 6% on the day. However, these declines had started before the Fed announcement and therefore cannot be attributed solely to the interest-rate decision.

Broader U.S. stock-market proxies moved less sharply. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, Invesco QQQ and iShares Russell 2000 ETF were each down about 0.4% shortly after the decision. Earlier pressure had come from rising oil prices, Middle East tensions and weakness among semiconductor stocks.

CLARITY Act becomes the next crypto policy test

With the FOMC decision producing no major crypto move, investors may now turn toward the CLARITY Act as the largest U.S. crypto-specific policy catalyst.

Polymarket traders currently give the legislation a 27% probability of becoming law during 2026. The prediction market has generated about $3 million in volume.

Senate negotiations remain divided over political ethics provisions and whether crypto companies should be allowed to offer rewards tied to stablecoin balances. Banking groups argue that such rewards could pull deposits away from traditional lenders.

The bill would establish clearer responsibilities for the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Failure to advance it before the Senate’s August recess could further narrow its path during the midterm election cycle.

Investors will also watch upcoming inflation and employment figures for signs that the Fed may raise rates in September. Those releases, alongside the CLARITY Act negotiations, could determine whether Bitcoin breaks out of its current range or continues consolidating near $64,000.

But then, those mechanics—along with loads of elaborately fake-looking special effects, which now, rather than being dazzling, are just business as usual—are the hallmarks of all Marvel movies. It seems you can’t build one without them. You also can’t really explain the plot of Brand New Day without giving away the arrival of a surprise character, but here, roughly, is how it goes: Sad Peter Parker goes through the motions of being Spider-Man for four long years, as MJ and Ned study hard at MIT, the college the three of them were supposed to attend together. After graduation, MJ and Ned return to New York; Peter spies on them wistfully, and when he finally does get up the guts to talk to them, his face draws blank stares. He regularly leaves fresh flowers at Aunt May’s grave. The rest of his days are spent foiling workaday crimes, until some weird events shake the city: an unseen force capable of taking control of people’s bodies and brains has begun to wreak mayhem. Meanwhile, Spider-Man’s web-shooting capabilities have gone awry. His know-it-all AI assistant E.V.I.E. informs him that this is due to a massive increase in “arachnid hormones,” which is also causing him to be more aggressive. In other words, he’s angry and stressed out, and he has no idea how to handle his rage.

Credit default swap (CDS) demand is surging throughout the AI industry. Five years of default protection on $10 million of Nvidia debt now costs about $82,000 a year — double since the start of July when it cost roughly $40,000.

CDS spreads are deteriorating rapidly across mega-cap AI stocks including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Broadcom, and SpaceX, which all hit record spreads this week.

Alphabet CDS contracts traded up to 67 basis points days after reporting its first negative quarterly free cash flow since its 2004 listing.

Investors refer to the “price” of a CDS by its basis point spread above the notional amount of debt it guarantees.

A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point, and the higher they “spread” above the notional quantity of debt, the more investors have to pay as a de facto insurance premium.

Companies want their CDS contracts to be cheap. When basis points are low, investors aren’t bidding extra for the right to receive a payout in the event of a credit default. Low basis points on CDS contracts — or even better, no CDS demand at all — indicate confidence that the company will service its debt on-time and in full.

Insurance premium doubles to protect Nvidia credit

Unfortunately, Nvidia’s five-year CDS contracts reached a record 82 basis points on Monday.

Monday’s jump of roughly 14 basis points was the largest single-day move since those Nvidia CDS contracts began trading in November 2025, ICE Data Services reported.

The $330 billion AI company Oracle carries an even worse premium. Its five-year CDSs traded above 215 basis points this week, up from 145 at the end of last year.

S&P Global cut the company’s creditworthiness rating to BBB- earlier this month, the lowest rung of its investment grade band. 

Oracle’s bonds that mature in 2056 and pay 6.7% interest widened eight basis points on Monday to 263 basis points over US Treasuries. Not good.

Even worse, CoreWeave topped 855 basis points on Tuesday. A popular CDS pricing model reads that as roughly a 50% chance of default within five years.

Disturbingly, the instruments themselves have become an unfortunate growth market for Wall Street.

CDS for AI stocks shouldn’t be a growth sector

AI companies and tech stocks accounted for nearly $650 million of second-quarter corporate CDS trading, DTCC data shows. That is up 20% on the first quarter and almost 600% year on year.

The spike in CDS spreads this week followed a Bloomberg report that Nvidia is preparing AI commitments potentially worth more than $750 billion.

Those include a partnership with SK Group valued above $500 billion and talks over a guarantee of as much as $250 billion to help OpenAI lease computing capacity.

Doubt about its ability to service that debt sent CDS rates higher.

Aviva Investors has launched a tokenized share class of its US Dollar Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, moving its Ripple partnership into production.

Aviva brings its USD liquidity fund to XRPL

Aviva Investors and Ripple announced the launch on July 29, following a tokenization partnership disclosed in February. The product is a new share class of the Aviva Investors US Dollar Liquidity Fund, an Ireland-domiciled UCITS money market fund launched in its traditional form in 2020.

The companies are using a “digital twin” structure. Fund holdings are represented on the XRP Ledger, while the existing off-chain fund and its regulated framework remain in place.

Eligible investors with approved digital wallets will receive the same investment objective, risk profile, liquidity terms and regulatory protections available through the conventional share class, according to the launch announcement.

Mark Versey, CEO of Aviva Investors, described the launch as the asset manager’s first step into tokenized funds.

“It is our view that this trend will increase efficiency and ultimately lead to improved client outcomes.”

Central Bank of Ireland approves tokenized share class

The Central Bank of Ireland approved the new share class, allowing the product to operate within the fund’s existing regulated structure.

Aviva said the fund targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity through high-grade, short-term debt instruments denominated in US dollars. BNY Mellon will continue holding the fund’s underlying assets, separating regulated custody from the blockchain record representing investor holdings.

Komainu, a regulated digital asset custodian, supported the blockchain infrastructure, while Licuido provided technology for tokenizing the fund. The structure lets Aviva issue and manage fund shares on XRPL without moving the underlying securities directly onto the network.

For US investors, the fund’s dollar denomination does not automatically make it available in the United States. Access remains limited to eligible investors and depends on local securities rules, distribution approvals and Aviva’s onboarding requirements. The announcement did not identify a US retail offering or approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ripple expands its institutional product strategy

The launch turns Ripple’s first partnership with a European investment manager into a live product. When the firms announced their agreement in February, they said they intended to work together throughout 2026 and beyond on bringing regulated funds to XRPL.

Ripple has also expanded other parts of its institutional infrastructure. Last week, the company launched Ripple Mint, giving approved customers a direct channel to issue, redeem, bridge and track its Ripple USD stablecoin.

Ripple separately invested in compliance firm Notabene, which operates a payment and transaction network for regulated businesses. Together, the updates address token issuance, distribution and compliance rather than relying on a single blockchain product.

SBI Holdings, a long-time Ripple partner, is also broadening its blockchain exposure. The Japanese financial group recently renamed SBI Security Solutions as SBI Digital Practice and repositioned the subsidiary around the Canton Network. The move extends SBI’s institutional on-chain strategy beyond Ripple and XRPL.

XRP Ledger holds $4.37B in tokenized assets

The Aviva fund joins a growing group of tokenized financial products represented on XRPL.

RWA.xyz data showed $313.3 million in distributed assets and $4.06 billion in represented assets on the network as of July 29. Together, those categories placed XRPL’s tracked real-world asset value at approximately $4.37 billion.

The number of RWA holders increased 17.42% during the previous 30 days to 182. However, distributed asset value fell 5.24%, while represented value declined 0.47% over the same period.

XRPL also held $952.25 million in stablecoins, including about $907.2 million attributed to RLUSD. Adding stablecoins to the network’s distributed and represented RWA figures would put the broader tracked total above $5.3 billion, although RWA.xyz lists the categories separately.

Aviva and Ripple have not disclosed the initial value of shares issued through the tokenized class. Future growth will depend on investor onboarding and whether Aviva expands the model to other funds under the partnership.