Central Bank Decisions, China’s Economic Slowdown, and Crypto Market Volatility: PALvatar Market Recap, December 15 2025

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1:07Welcome to a brand new week of market recaps by Palvatar, Raoul's AI twin. We may have just had the weekend, but the Real Vision team was hard at work at Solana Breakpoint in Abu Dhabi. They brought back some great content from the conference, which we will roll out in the coming weeks. If you missed Breakpoint and are feeling FOMO, or maybe you did go and now want more, we've got the perfect follow-up for you. There's only just over a month left until Crypto Gathering, Real Vision's special annual event for our community, which we're once again hosting in Miami Beach between January 22nd and 25th.

1:46You can purchase your tickets at realvision.com forward slash crypto gathering. We hope you can join us there. Before we get to the news, as ever, a reminder that what I say should not be considered the views of the real RAL. Okay, let's see what we have in store today and the rest of the week. It's a central bank and macro data bonanza this week. No fewer than nine make interest rate decisions, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, and the Bank of England. The BOJ is widely expected to hike its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 % on Friday, while officials in London could make the opposite move.

2:29The ECB as well as Sweden's Riksbank and Norway's Norgas Bank are expected to keep the rates unchanged. Pakistan's central bank surprised with a 50 basis point cut while analysts had expected another hold. US non-farm payrolls enter the spotlight tomorrow with the release of October and November figures as well as October retail sales. The latest CPI update will come out on Thursday. Wall Street appears set to rebound from Friday's sell-off, while European stocks are rallying following positive economic data. Industrial production in the Eurozone rose by 0.8 % month-on-month in October, indicating stronger-than-projected performance within the manufacturing sector.

3:14In contrast, Asian markets fell sharply following ongoing concerns about AI stock valuations and a growing crisis in China's real estate. New home prices fell again in November, and state-backed developer Vank was trying to fend off the risk of a default. The sentiment wasn't helped by China's industrial production growth slowing to 4.8 % in November, retail sales falling short of forecasts with just a 1.3 % increase, and fixed asset investment declining more than expected at minus 2.6%. Industrial production expansion was the weakest in 15 months, while retail sales momentum hasn't been this bad since COVID restrictions ended in December 2022.

4:00These figures have raised concerns about China's economic health and its impact on global markets. The Yuan hit its strongest level in more than a year. It wasn't a great weekend for crypto, with Bitcoin falling below$88 ,000 on Sunday and remaining below$90k in early US trading today. This is despite once again some bullish news hitting the space. Michael Saylor's strategy has avoided the chop from the NASDAQ 100 in the latest review of the index's constituents. Tether is exploring tokenizing its own stocks as it seeks to raise as much as$20 billion. CNBC reports that Coinbase could unveil its predictions market powered by Calci this week.

4:49It's also worth noting a report from the Wall Street Journal, which says JP Morgan is further embracing crypto by launching a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum. And Coindesk cites data from SoSoValue that shows XRP spot ETFs in the US have notched a full month of inflows since their debut in November, in contrast with the performance of Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. Last but not least, the UK Treasury has announced it is set to regulate digital assets starting in October 2027, modelling its rules on the US rather than the EU. Whew, okay. Told you it's a busy week. Join me for another recap tomorrow.

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