New Year, New Optimism

Institutions keep adopting, liquidity keeps rising and regulation is nearing clarity. Sentiment is quietly shifting - even if October PTSD hasn’t let go yet

In partnership with

Howdy Hodlers,

Well folks, we had our helmets on and seatbelts fastened for today. Markets were bracing for chaos with the Supreme Court supposed to rule on whether Trump’s tariffs get nuked or not.

Plot twist: no ruling today.
Classic.

So the can gets kicked, volatility gets postponed, and we head into the weekend in limbo. Now we wait to see if the markets stay chill… or if Trump does what Trump does best and drops a headline grenade while TradFi is closed.

Weekend risk is back on the menu. 🍿

Pelosi Made 178% While Your 401(k) Crashed

Nancy Pelosi: Up 178% on TEM options
Marjorie Taylor Greene: Up 134% on PLTR
Cleo Fields: Up 138% on IREN

Meanwhile, retail investors got crushed on CNBC's "expert" picks.

The uncomfortable truth: Politicians don't just make laws. They make fortunes.

AltIndex reports every single Congress filing without fail and updates their data constantly.

Then their AI factors those Congress trades into the AI stock ratings on the AltIndex app.

We’ve partnered with AltIndex to get our readers free access to their app for a limited time.

Congress filed 7,810 new stock buys this year as of July.

Don’t miss out on direct access to their playbooks!

Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.

This week in crypto can be summed up clean and simple:
👉 More institutions
👉 More liquidity
👉 More reassurance that the money spigot isn’t a myth

This week, we got a new liquidity source confirmed.

Trump announced a $200 billion government-backed liquidity injection into mortgage bonds.

Not exactly subtle.
Not exactly small.
And definitely not bearish.

Add this to the liquidity sources we’ve been hammering for weeks now and we can expect some good times to kick off 2026.

Call it what you want… stimulus, support, plumbing, “temporary measures”. In the end, liquidity is liquidity. And markets eventually notice.

Also this week we saw TradFi continue crawling toward crypto like it just realized the future showed up without it.

Morgan Stanley (yes, the $1.3 trillion dinosaur) made headlines as one of the last major TradFi giants to officially embrace crypto with the application for their own Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana ETFs.

And Bank of America?

They didn’t just dip a toe, this week they went full orange pill with an updated portfolio strategy that reads like someone finally read the Bitcoin whitepaper and the CPI report.

At this point, the list of major financial institutions not involved in crypto is getting uncomfortably short.

To cap off a week where sentiment actually started to feel… lighter… we got reassuring noise around the Market Structure Bill nearing launch.

This is the big one.

The bill that turns crypto from “regulatory gray zone” into actual legislation.

Many expect it to be the moment TradFi stops experimenting with crypto and starts allocating.

And yes, it’s widely viewed as one of the major catalysts for the 2026 run to new ATHs.

Now let’s be honest…
We’ve seen this movie before.
Amazing crypto headlines.
Zero price movement.

Pain.

So yeah, we’re cautiously optimistic.

Since this is our first newsletter for 2026, here’s a recap of the predictions for this year from some of the top dogs in the industry:

Hodl Headlines

The Week’s Most Interesting News

  1. MSCI Won’t Exclude Bitcoin Treasuries From Indexes: MSCI has dropped its plan to remove digital-asset treasury companies like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) from its global indexes, preserving their eligibility despite past pressure. The decision offers relief to heavily Bitcoin-exposed equities and avoids triggering forced sell-offs tied to index-linked funds.

  2. World Liberty Financial Seeks Banking License: World Liberty Financial, backed by the Trump family, has applied for a U.S. national trust bank charter focused on stablecoin issuance and custody services. The bank, centered around its USD1 stablecoin with over $3.3 billion in circulation, aims to offer fee-free USD conversions at launch.

  3. Dow Jones Signs Exclusive Deal with Polymarket: News Corp’s Dow Jones has struck an exclusive partnership with prediction market platform Polymarket to integrate live prediction market data across its outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch, bringing real-time event probabilities to mainstream financial media.

  4. Zcash Developer Team Resigns Amid Governance Clash: The core Electric Coin Company developers behind Zcash have quit following a governance dispute with the project’s nonprofit board, sparking uncertainty for the privacy coin’s future. ZEC’s price quickly plunged as the community reacts to leadership upheaval and reorg plans.

  5. Bank of America Advises Up to 4% Bitcoin Allocation: Bank of America reportedly now permits wealth advisors to recommend Bitcoin allocations of up to ~4% of a client’s portfolio, aligning with broader institutional endorsement of digital assets. This guidance could expand mainstream crypto exposure among high-net-worth investors.

  6. Is Venezuela Secretly a Bitcoin Superpower?: Reports suggest Alex Saab, closely tied to the Maduro regime, may control up to ~$60 billion in Bitcoin, positioning Venezuela as a clandestine crypto heavyweight amid geopolitical tensions. The narrative frames blockchain holdings as a strategic asset against U.S. economic pressure.

  7. China’s Wealthy Swap Bitcoin for Luxury Homes: Affluent Chinese investors are increasingly placing Bitcoin alongside, or even above, luxury real estate as a store of value due to its liquidity and global tradability. The shift reflects changing sentiment toward illiquid property and the appeal of digital assets amid economic uncertainty.

  8. Chainalysis Releases 2026 Crypto Crime Report: Chainalysis has introduced its 2026 Crypto Crime Report, highlighting that crypto-related illicit activity, including sanctions evasion, has surged and evolved in 2025. The findings underscore the ongoing challenges law enforcement and compliance teams face as digital assets integrate more deeply into financial systems.

Big thanks for making it to the end of this week’s Hodl Report! 👊

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Happy Friday!

Disclaimer: The content from Hodl Report should not be taken as trading, investment or financial advice or solicitation to buy or sell any assets. This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only. Please be careful out there and DYOR (do your own research)