Fed Ends Quantitative Tightening, Is the Old System Crashing? Crypto Takes the Lead

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) finally ended its Quantitative Tightening policy on December 1, 2025. The Fed froze its balance sheet at $6.57 trillion, meaning it will no longer remove money from the financial system. 

Many analysts say the latest Federal Reserve actions reveal deep cracks in the global economy, and have opened big opportunities for Crypto and stablecoins.

Liquidity Drain Exposed Weakness In the Market

Since June 2022, the Fed and other central banks have withdrawn about $2.4 trillion from global markets, the biggest money drain ever. This pushed interest rates higher, but also slowly surged the debt and asset bubbles that have held the system together since 2008.

On top of it, several key economic indicators are flashing red. In the U.S., the Cass Freight Index has fallen for 33 straight months. In October 2025, we saw a 7.8% drop in logistics shipments, the worst performance since 2009.

At the same time, inventories in Shanghai fell to their lowest since 2015, and Japan’s 10-year bond yields hit multi-decade highs.

Even crypto is feeling the shock. Bitcoin has fallen from $126,000 to below $79,000, trading activity is down, and major crypto ETFs are witnessing outflows.

Experts Warn the Old Money System Is in Crisis

According to researcher Rob Cunningham’s analysis, the U.S. financial system is now running on emergency tools originally intended only for rare crises. 

• Banks have less cash
• Companies find it harder to get loans
• The government is paying more interest on its debt.
• Short-term money lending is getting risky

Even the Reverse Repo balances have dropped to near zero, while the U.S. bond market struggles to stay stable.

Cunningham warns that the Fed has stopped being a “lender of last resort” and has now become the “lender every night.”

Crypto & Stablecoins, Unexpected New Lifeboat 

As the old money system weakens, a new one built on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is quietly rising. The GENIUS Act now gives stablecoins clear rules as real digital dollars, while ISO 20022 brings full transparency to global payments.

Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act aims to define which digital assets, like XRP, XLM, ALGO, and HBAR, can operate as real financial infrastructure.

At the same time, tokenised real-world assets and new digital trade systems are enabling countries to move value faster, more cheaply, and without the need for old intermediaries.