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    Trump’s Fed chair candidates list narrowed down to five by Bessent after interviews, sources say

    The list of candidates for Federal Reserve chair is down to five from 11 after a series of interviews with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to sources.
    The remaining list of candidates includes Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, Fed Governor Christopher Waller — along with Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council.
    Former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder also made the cut.
    The individual selected by Trump could be nominated to the Fed — though not necessarily as chair — by January.

    After a series of rigorous interviews, some lasting as long as two hours, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has winnowed down the list of candidates for Federal Reserve chair to five from 11, and that person could be nominated to the Fed — though not necessarily as chair — by January.
    According to senior Treasury officials, the remaining list of candidates includes two sitting Fed officials — Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller — along with Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and BlackRock Fixed Income CIO Rick Rieder.

    The Treasury plans to hold another round of interviews with all five candidates in the coming weeks and months. The interviews will be led by Bessent and include two senior Treasury officials and two senior White House officials.
    With Bessent focused on the World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington next week and then traveling to Asia with President Donald Trump on an extended trip, the officials said the interview process might not be wrapped up until after Thanksgiving.
    The secretary then intends to send a smaller list to Trump, who will make the final decision. It is likely, however, that this person will first be nominated to be a Fed governor and then nominated later to be Fed chair.
    The reason is outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May, sits in a governor’s seat that has only two years remaining. The seat of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, now occupied by Stephen Miran, has a term that ends in January and would allow the new Fed chair to be nominated to a seat with a full 14-year governor’s term.
    But the officials said that strategy was not decided and there were other possibilities.

    The president has already named Warsh, Hassett and Waller as finalists for the job, so only Rieder and Bowman would be new recommendations to the White House.

    Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, speaking at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York City on Sept. 28, 2023.
    Adam Jeffery | CNBC

    Compared with previous administrations, the Trump administration has been running a more open process for the next Fed chair, announcing candidates as the list grows and, now, shrinks.
    At the same time, the administration, led by the president himself, has been highly critical of Fed policy, repeatedly urging it to lower rates sharply. The president had threatened to remove Powell and actually fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud, accusations she denies.
    Cook’s firing has been blocked by lower courts, and the case will be heard in January by the Supreme Court. The attempts to oust Cook have raised concerns about the administration’s commitment to Fed independence, raising the stakes for the new chair appointment and making it a closely followed decision.

    BlackRock’s Rieder impresses

    The Treasury officials also for the first time provided some insight into Bessent’s thinking about the criteria used to decide who to pick for the job.
    Bessent is said to be seeking someone who is open to new ideas about how to run the Fed and monetary policy, and has experience in economics, monetary policy, banking regulation and management.
    The secretary recently penned an essay sharply critical of the Fed and called for reviews of the central bank’s policy, structure and mission.
    Among his critiques was that the Fed had grown too big and experienced mission creep. That suggests he would prefer a candidate willing to pare down both the Fed’s size and roll back its use of some tools, especially quantitative easing.
    The officials said no candidate was leading the pack, but they confirmed recent reports that Rieder had impressed Bessent.
    Rieder, a frequent guest on CNBC, has been a well-known fixture on Wall Street for years. His analysis of the fixed income market and the Fed are widely read. He also manages a large department at BlackRock. While not decisive, the officials suggested it could be a plus that Rieder, alone among the five remaining candidates, has never worked at the Fed. More

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    Fed Governor Waller sees more rate cuts but says central bank needs to be ‘cautious about it’

    Fed Governor Christopher Waller said Friday that he continues to support lowering interest rates but said the central bank needs to be careful amid conflicting economic signals.
    “I want to move towards cutting rates, but you’re not going to do it aggressively and fast, in case you make a big mistake on which way that things go,” he said in a CNBC interview.
    The monetary policy comments came shortly after a CNBC report that Waller is one of five finalists to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May 2026.

    Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday that he continues to support lowering interest rates but said the central bank needs to be careful amid conflicting economic signals.
    “I’m still in the belief we need to cut rates, but we need to kind of be cautious about it,” Waller said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

    On one hand, he said, the U.S. labor market appears to be losing jobs, potentially signaling a broader economic slowdown. On the other, gross domestic product growth remains strong and there remain concerns over inflation, which is still running considerably higher than the Fed’s 2% goal.
    “Something’s got to give. Either the labor market rebounds to match the GDP growth, or that GDP growth is going to pull back. So whichever way that goes, it’s got to affect what you do with policy,” Waller said. “I want to move towards cutting rates, but you’re not going to do it aggressively and fast, in case you make a big mistake on which way that things go.”
    At its September meeting, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee approved its first quarter percentage point reduction since December 2024. In addition, committee members signaled in their quarterly “dot plot” update of individual members’ expectations that two more cuts were likely before the end of the year.
    Waller said he’s comfortable with that pace but doesn’t think the Fed should move faster than that. His new colleague, Governor Stephen Miran, appointed by President Donald Trump, pushed for a bigger half-point reduction and wants to see the Fed lop another 1.25 percentage points off the federal funds rate by the end of the year.
    “You can always adjust as you go as the data comes in,” Waller said. “I mean, if you went 75 [basis points] tomorrow, then you have a bit of a problem.”

    The monetary policy comments came shortly after a CNBC report that Waller is one of five finalists to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May 2026. Waller recently interviewed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who in turn is sending a list to Trump of the best candidates to lead the central bank.
    As part of the process, Waller sat down for what were reportedly lengthy interviews as Trump looks for a central bank more in his liking for lower interest rates. However, Waller said the discussion with Bessent focused squarely on policy.
    “It was actually a great interview. I mean, it was a lot of discussion about various aspects of the Fed, talking about various speeches I’ve given my points of view,” Waller said. “I just thought it was great. I mean, really there was nothing political about it. It was all serious economic discussion.”
    Waller’s cautious views on policy extend to the economy.
    On the labor market, he said the past few months probably saw a loss of jobs. On inflation, he said he continues to think the impact from Trump’s tariffs will be temporary. More

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    How the world’s 240,000 crypto millionaires are spending their fortunes

    There are now an estimated 241,700 individuals with crypto holdings worth $1 million or more, up 40% from last year, according to Henley & Partners and New World Wealth.
    Bitcoin’s price has more than doubled over the past year, as the dollar falls and concerns grow over deficits and fiscal spending.
    A group of economists who analyzed crypto wallets sheds light on some common characteristics and overall spending.

    A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
    The price surge in bitcoin helped created another 70,000 new crypto millionaires over the past year, adding hundreds of billions of dollars in potential spending to the economy, according to new studies.

    There are now an estimated 241,700 individuals with crypto holdings worth $1 million or more, up 40% from last year, according to Henley & Partners and New World Wealth. There are 450 crypto centimillionaires, or those with crypto holdings of $100 million or more, and 36 crypto billionaires, according to the report.
    Bitcoin’s price has more than doubled over the past year, as the dollar falls and concerns grow over deficits and fiscal spending. More friendly regulation in the U.S. and wider adoption by investors and traditional financial services companies has also increased demand. On Monday, bitcoin topped $125,000 for the first time before settling back down to around $122,000. 
    The total market cap of the world’s cryptocurrencies has soared to over $4.3 trillion, adding $2 trillion in paper wealth over the past three years. While still small relative to the recent stock market gains – with Nvidia itself worth over $4 trillion – the crypto boom has created substantial wealth for millennials and the younger investors who were early investors in crypto.
    “Bitcoin is becoming the foundation of a parallel financial system, where it is not merely an investment for speculation on fiat price appreciation, but the base currency for accumulating wealth,” said Philipp Baumann, founder of Z22 Technologies, a crypto trading firm.
    The new class of crypto wealthy is so recent that reliable research on their spending and investing habits remains scarce. But a new paper by a group of economists who analyzed crypto wallets sheds light on some common characteristics and overall spending.

    The study, by Brigham Young University professors Darren Aiello, Mark Johnson and Jason Kotter, along with Scott Baker at Northwestern University, Tetyana Balyuk at Emory University and Marco Di Maggio at Imperial College London, looked at crypto investors based on transfers to and from crypto exchanges.
    They found that crypto investors spent roughly 9.7 cents for every dollar in added crypto wealth. This ratio, known as the marginal propensity to spend, was more than 2 times the level typically found for gains in the stock market or home values. Since crypto investors tend to be younger, they also tend to spend more of their wealth gains compared to older investors.
    The report’s authors estimate that the added wealth generated by crypto gains accounted for $145 billion in additional spending in 2024, or about 0.7% of total U.S. consumption.
    Crypto declines, however, have the reverse effect.
    “While the massive rise in crypto wealth over the past decade has likely contributed positively to economic growth through consumption spillovers, this symmetry suggests that major crypto crashes could exert significant negative pressure on the economy as investors cut consumption expenditures,” according to the study.
    The authors say crypto investors tend to fall into two broad categories – casual crypto investors, who have a relatively small portion of their investments in crypto, and the “all-in” investors, who allocate 100% of their investments in crypto. The more diversified crypto investors tend to spend more of their gains. The “all-in” investors rarely change their spending, since they have “strong convictions” about crypto’s future and rarely sell.

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    When it comes to their spending, the crypto wealthy who load up on Lamborghinis and Rolexes appear to be more of a high-profile exception than the rule. The study said most of the consumption is on restaurants, entertainment and general merchandise.
    An earlier study from the group found that real estate is highly popular among the crypto wealthy. The research looked at home prices in counties with large crypto populations versus counties with low crypto populations. The study found that when bitcoin spiked, home prices grew 0.46% faster in the crypto-heavy counties.
    “We find that increases in crypto wealth cause significant house price growth,” according to the study.
    Bitcoin’s current boom may not lead to a sudden flood of spending, however. Tad Smith, the former CEO of Sotheby’s and now partner at 50T Funds, a growth equity firm focused on digital assets, said many wealthy crypto investors are holding on to their bitcoin and other tokens expecting a further run-up in price.
    “They want to be fully invested because this is the moment they’ve been waiting for,” Smith said. “For them, this is not the time to sell.”
    Smith said that while some longtime mega-holders of bitcoin, known as “whales,” may be occasionally cashing in a small portion of their holdings in the current price run-up, the vast majority of committed crypto investors are pouring even more money into the asset class.
    Over the longer term, Smith said that as crypto investors get older and start families, more of their spending will go to real estate rather than flashy cars or watches.
    “In the last big cycle, they were younger,” Smith said. “Now many of them have kids, and they have a growing family to think about. So their lifestyle choices are different.”
    The spending of the crypto wealthy is also likely to accelerate as crypto-backed lending products become more acceptable. Zac Prince, head of GalaxyOne, the new trading and finance platform of Galaxy Digital, said buying a house has been difficult for many wealthy crypto investors because of their crypto collateral.
    “Today if you want to borrow against your crypto, there are relatively limited options,” he said. “I’ve heard countless horror stories from people who have millions of dollars in crypto and they want to buy a house, but they can’t get approved for a mortgage by traditional bank lenders.”
    But that tide may be turning. Bill Pulte, the FHFA director, issued a directive to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider crypto currency assets in their underwriting guidelines for mortgage loans.
    Prince said that as lenders allow more borrowing by the crypto wealthy, their spending will increase, since they won’t have to sell their positions for liquidity.
    “The strategy of ‘buy borrow die’ has been around for a long time,” he said. “The problem is crypto investors haven’t been able to access borrowing.” More

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    China retaliates against U.S. port fees with new charges on American ships

    China on Friday announced that starting Oct. 14, it will start charging U.S. ships for docking at Chinese ports.
    The move was a direct response to similar U.S. port fees on Chinese ships set to take effect the same day.
    The U.S. only accounts for 0.1% of global shipbuilding, versus 53.3% for China, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Pictured here is Shanghai Port’s foreign trade container terminal in Shanghai, China on October 9, 2025.
    Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

    BEIJING — China on Friday announced that starting Oct. 14, the country will start charging U.S. ships for docking at Chinese ports — a direct response to Washington for imposing fees on Chinese vessels arriving at U.S. ports, set to take effect the same day.
    The U.S. fees “seriously violate” international trading principles and “seriously damages” China-U.S. maritime trade, the Chinese Ministry of Transport said in the announcement, translated by CNBC.

    China will charge 400 yuan ($56) per net ton for the U.S. vessels, essentially the same as the $50 per net ton that the U.S. is imposing on Chinese ships. Beijing also matched the U.S. with plans to increase the fees over time through April 17, 2028, with the same effective dates.
    In the “short term, this will result in an increase in costs for U.S. consumers, a decrease in profits for shippers, and a small decline in demand for exports to the U.S. in certain categories,” said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
    In the longer term, he said there could be more demand for non-Chinese ships. But he didn’t expect an increase in demand for U.S.-made ships due to their high costs and low shipbuilding capacity.
    The U.S. only accounts for 0.1% of global shipbuilding, versus 53.3% for China, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
    That outsized Chinese market share prompted the U.S. to develop a policy, beginning under the Biden administration, to charge Chinese-made ships when arriving at U.S. ports.

    The Chinese Ministry of Transport said the fees would apply to vessels owned by U.S. businesses, organizations, individuals and entities holding a 25% or greater stake. Ships flying the U.S. flag or made in Washington would also be charged, the ministry said.
    This is “just more tit-for-tat negotiating tactics. The U.S. placed similar fees on Chinese bound vessels and now China is doing the same,” said Peter Alexander, managing director of Z-Ben Advisors in Shanghai.
    “The Trump administration continues to underestimate China and this needs to stop,” Alexander said. “There seems to be little consideration given to second and third-order effects of policy choices.”
    He added: “China can give as good as it gets and has demonstrated a willingness to take direct action. Have there been any lessons learned by the Americans over the past six months?  It certainly doesn’t seem so.”
    The Chinese port fee announcement comes after China doubled down on its export restrictions and broadened its “unreliable entities” blacklist to include chip consulting firm TechInsights, in the last two days.
    U.S.-China tensions have remained elevated despite a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month, and expectations of a meeting between the two leaders in South Korea in coming weeks.
    While Trump has played up progress on a deal for Beijing-based ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations of its TikTok app, China has been less conclusive. More

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    NBA looks to China for growth, renewing a foothold in its second-largest market

    The NBA returns to China after a six-year hiatus, marking a pivotal moment in rebuilding its relationship with its second-largest market.
    The league is investing heavily in infrastructure and community outreach in China, including retail expansion, youth clinics and refurbished courts.
    Players and teams are curating local content to grow their presence, with stars like Jalen Brunson actively connecting with Chinese audiences.

    Michael Porter Jr. #17 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball during practice and media availability as part of 2025 NBA Global Games China at Venetian Arena on October 9, 2025 in Macao, China.
    Ryan Stetz | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

    MACAO — The National Basketball Association returns to China for the first of two Macao games on Friday, and the impact extends beyond the preseason.
    The weekend marks a major milestone for the NBA, as years of rebuilding its relationship with its second-largest market culminate with the Phoenix Suns and Brooklyn Nets facing off in the Venetian Arena here. For the NBA, it could mean unlocking future growth in China as television viewership declines in the U.S.

    The NBA’s return to China comes after a six-year hiatus following 2019 comments by Daryl Morey, then-Houston Rockets general manager, voicing support for Hong Kong protestors and setting off an international crisis. For the next three years, the league was largely absent from Chinese airwaves in China. Nearly every Chinese sponsor cut ties with the NBA.
    But the NBA’s history in China dates back to the 1970s. Since 1979, the NBA and USA basketball have played a total of 48 games in China, according to NBA data. Demand for the 2025 Macao games, set for Friday and Sunday, was high: At the upper end, tickets were going for more than $3,000.
    And there are signs of progress off the court, too.
    The league on Thursday announced a renewed partnership with Alibaba, making the tech company’s cloud unit the official cloud computing and AI partner of NBA China. The partnership already included a dedicated NBA section across Alibaba platforms that allow fans in China to engage in content or shop for NBA merchandise.
    Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai owns the Nets.

    The NBA is hoping to tap into basketball fans among China’s 1.4 billion-person population as the league grapples with cord-cutting and changing viewership habits at home. Last season, television viewership dipped.
    Meanwhile, in China, the NBA has won a massive fan base. It’s the most-followed sports league on social media, according to the league, with 425 million followers across league, team and player platforms. To put that number in perspective, that’s more than the entire population of the United States.
    The league has also been investing in infrastructure in China. It now has four flagship stores, 45 NBA kids stores, seven NBA e-commerce flagship stores and more than 5,000 partner retail stores across the country.
    “We’ve created a lot of fan experiences here, and the goal is to really make something special where the fans of the NBA in Asia and China can really get a true taste of what the NBA has to offer,” said Patrick Dumont, Dallas Mavericks owner and Las Vegas Sands president, who was an architect of the NBA’s return to China. Las Vegas Sands owns the Venetian in Macao, where the two preseason games will be played.

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    To raise awareness and give back to the local communities, the league has hosted more than 140 community outreach events and built 100 spaces for children and family to learn, live and play in China since 2004. More than 400 current and former NBA players have participated in this program.
    This week, the Nets are hosting 13 youth clinics across Hong Kong and Macao, in addition to a basketball court refurbishment project in Hong Kong.
    It’s not just at the league level where professional basketball is tapping into China’s potential. At least seven NBA teams and 10 individual players are working with East Goes Global, a marketing and consulting firm that bridges the western brands with Chinese audiences.
    “We’re able to localize a ton of their western-facing content, creating new, unique content, even showing up to a lot of the team’s media days to shoot China specific content,” said Andrew Spalter, founder and CEO of the company.
    East Goes Global, run by brothers Andrew and Matthew Spalter, also works directly with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson to grow his international profile in China.
    “Jalen is actively speaking to his Chinese audience more so than most athletes have ever done in the past. He’s trying to learn calligraphy, he’s eating Chinese foods, he’s collaborating with Chinese influencers and celebrities,” said Matthew Spalter, chief operating officer at East Goes Global.
    Dumont said the Macao games are part of a multi-year deal and that executives are already thinking about next year.
    “I think it’s the classic win, win, win,” he said. “It’s great for the NBA because it gets to bring its best product, top teams, real games, real experiences, and it allows local fans who maybe don’t have the ability to get to the U.S. to get to experience the NBA and see basketball played at the highest level.” More

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    China’s property slump this year is looking much worse than expected, S&P says

    The analysts forecast sales of new homes will drop by 8% from last year to between 8.8 trillion yuan and 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion to $1.26 trillion).
    That’s a far steeper decline than the 3% drop the analysts had predicted in May.
    “The government will need to continue to support the sector and demand help restore homebuyers’ confidence,” Edward Chan, director, corporate ratings, told CNBC.

    Pictured here is construction on a real estate project in Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province, China on October 9, 2025.
    Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

    BEIJING — China’s real estate market is expected to fall more sharply than expected in 2025, extending an industry slump for a fifth-straight year and delaying hopes of a market turnaround, S&P Global Ratings said in a report late Thursday.
    The analysts project sales of new homes will drop by 8% from last year to between 8.8 trillion yuan and 9 trillion yuan ($1.23 trillion to $1.26 trillion).

    That’s a far steeper decline than the 3% drop the major ratings agency had predicted in May. At the time, the analysts expected the trade war and other external uncertainties would have pushed China to roll out stronger support for the real estate sector, Edward Chan, director, corporate ratings at S&P Global Ratings, told CNBC.
    The main reason for the weaker outlook is that “homebuyers’ sentiment is still pretty fragile,” Chan said. “So the government will need to continue to support the sector and demand [to] help restore homebuyers’ confidence.”
    In September 2024, Beijing called for efforts to “halt” the real estate decline in a high-profile meeting. But after some new measures last year, the political momentum to ramp up further support appeared to slow.

    S&P noted that China’s five-year loan prime rate — the benchmark for most mortgages — has only fallen by 10 basis points so far this year, compared with a 60-basis point reduction in 2024. This signals that Beijing isn’t easing policy as aggressively as before, despite the property slump.
    In August, three of China’s largest cities eased purchase restrictions to allow buyers to hold multiple properties, but the move mostly applied to units in the less desirable city outskirts, S&P noted.

    “If demand can be stabilized first in the higher-tier cities, particularly in the first-tier [largest] cities first, that would probably help the trajectory of the demand recovery to be more sustainable,” Chan said.

    Turnaround remains elusive

    For now, hopes of a bottom in China’s real estate slump look even more distant.
    With sales projected to be 9 trillion yuan or less this year, China’s property market will have halved in just four years, from 18.2 trillion yuan in 2021, according to S&P. The ratings agency expects sales to fall by another 6% to 7% in 2026, with primary home prices down by 1.5% to 2.5%.
    In past decades, homebuyers in China have tended to buy apartments ahead of completion. But as developers ran into financial difficulties, construction was delayed, shaking consumer confidence. This prompted Beijing last year to announce a “whitelist” to fund approved unfinished projects.
    As of August, completed, but unsold housing inventory had climbed to 762 million square meters, up from 753 million square meters in December 2024, S&P said.

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    “The government has been doing quite a lot to assure people [that getting] their apartments isn’t the issue now,” Chan said. “The issue is the overall demand for the nation as a whole seems to be weaker than we expected.”
    Going forward, he expects the government will step in, even if incrementally, when market weakness appears.
    August saw both a relaxation in some home purchase restrictions and a high-profile acknowledgement by Chinese Premier Li Qiang that the real estate slump remained unresolved, indicating the need for more support.
    The following month, sales by China’s top 100 developers rose 0.4% year over year, S&P said, citing industry data.
    As developers strive to survive, the report said, “the end result may be a smaller market, but also a healthier and more resilient sector.” More

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    ‘Bitcoin is not an asset class’: UK’s biggest investment platform has a stark warning for investors

    The U.K.’s biggest retail investment platform, Hargreaves Lansdowne, has urged traders to exercise caution on cryptocurrencies.
    “The HL Investment view is that bitcoin is not an asset class, and we do not think cryptocurrency has characteristics that mean it should be included in portfolios for growth or income,” the firm said.
    A longstanding U.K. ban on retail investors being able to access crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) was lifted on Oct. 8.

    CHONGQING, CHINA – JULY 17: In this photo illustration, a person holds a physical representation of a Bitcoin (BTC) coin in front of a screen displaying a candlestick chart of Bitcoin’s latest price movements on July 17, 2025 in Chongqing, China. (Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
    Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    A major trading platform in the U.K. has issued a stark warning to investors hoping to cash in on relaxed crypto rules: cryptocurrencies should not be in your portfolio.
    A longstanding U.K. ban on retail investors being able to access crypto exchange-traded notes (ETNs) was lifted on Oct. 8. Exchange-traded notes are debt instruments linked to one or more specified assets. In this case, they give traders exposure to digital tokens through the use of a regulated exchange.

    The new rules sparked a warning from Hargreaves Lansdowne — the U.K.’s biggest retail investment platform — which urged British retail investors to be cautious.
    “The HL Investment view is that bitcoin is not an asset class, and we do not think cryptocurrency has characteristics that mean it should be included in portfolios for growth or income and shouldn’t be relied upon to help clients meet their financial goals,” Hargreaves Lansdowne said in a statement.
    “Performance assumptions are not possible to analyse for crypto, and unlike other alternative asset classes it has no intrinsic value.”
    When U.K. officials announced earlier this year that the ETN ban would be overturned, they argued the move would support “the growth and competitiveness of the U.K.’s crypto industry.” It was hailed by crypto firms as a major breakthrough for the sector in Britain.
    The government also ruled on Wednesday that investors will be able to hold crypto ETNs in stocks and shares ISA accounts, an account where up to £20,000 ($26,753) a year can be invested tax-free.

    Big gains, and big losses

    Cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized and therefore not regulated by central authorities like governments, have their critics and prices are notoriously volatile. In 2022, a so-called “crypto winter” saw investors lose $2 trillion. Bitcoin — the most commonly traded cryptocurrency — has led to major returns for early investors, however, and was last seen trading around $121,508.

    Stock chart icon

    Bitcoin price

    Still, Hargreaves Lansdowne urged investors to consider the risks attached to all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
    “While longer-term returns of bitcoin have been positive, bitcoin has experienced several periods of extreme losses and is a highly volatile investment — much riskier than stocks or bonds,” the company said in its statement this week.
    The firm said, however, that it recognized that some traders wished to “speculate with cryptocurrency ETNs,” and that it would therefore offer “appropriate clients” the opportunity to do so from early 2026.

    Institutional backing

    Cryptocurrencies have long divided market watchers, with some major institutions piling into digital assets while others have warned against them.
    Last month, Morgan Stanley said it was close to offering crypto trading to retail investors through its E-Trade division. The bank was the first major U.S. bank to offer wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds — a move that others have since followed.
    JPMorgan, meanwhile, plans to get involved in the stablecoin space, despite CEO Jamie Dimon being vocal in his criticism of crypto. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has also openly lashed out at cryptocurrencies.
    Chris Mellor, head of EMEA ETF equity product management at Invesco, told CNBC on Thursday that he believes digital assets can offer investors a hedge against volatility in more traditional asset classes.
    “Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are sometimes considered ‘digital gold’ and questions have been raised around whether bitcoin might one day replace gold as the non-fiat asset of choice,” he said via email. “In our opinion, there is room for both in portfolios. With the caveat that correlations can change, in recent months we have observed that bitcoin has displayed a very low correlation with stocks, U.S. Treasuries and gold.”
    Meanwhile, Nigel Green, CEO of financial consultancy DeVere Group, argued that bitcoin’s recent climb past the $125,000 mark was a signal that digital assets have entered the financial mainstream.
    “Investors are no longer treating bitcoin as a curiosity at the edge of the market,” he told CNBC. “Volatility still exists, but it is now productive volatility, the kind that accompanies price discovery in a maturing market. Short-term swings are inevitable when capital rotates at this scale.”
    Green labeled this “a structural realignment, not a temporary rally” for bitcoin, and pointed to the Trump administration’s favorable policy mix as offering further support for its credibility.
    “The hands holding bitcoin have become stronger, more institutional, and more patient,” he added. “Bitcoin, for investors who take a strategic view, remains a solid, enduring investment.”
    — CNBC’s Ryan Browne and Hugh Son contributed to this article. More

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    Former Fed Governor Larry Lindsey withdraws name for Fed chair

    Former U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Larry Lindsey has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of Fed chair, CNBC’s Eamon Javers reported on Thursday.
    President Trump is considering a list of candidates to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for when his term expires in May.

    Larry Lindsey, president and CEO of The Lindsey Group
    Adam Jeffery | CNBC

    Former U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Larry Lindsey has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position of Fed chair, CNBC’s Eamon Javers reported on Thursday.
    “I have a very full varied and enjoyable life right now that I don’t want to give up to go through the mill of public life,” Lindsey told Javers via text message on Thursday.

    Lindsey was one of the candidates being interviewed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. President Donald Trump has been considering a list of candidates to replace Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for when his term expires in May. More