Goldman Sachs just delayed the Federal Reserve's next rate cut to December of this year, and the following one is now projected to happen in March 2027. The core logic is simple: they expect core PCE inflation to approach 3% within the year, far from the Fed's 2% target. The IMF also previously said something similar—core inflation might only fall back to 2% by early 2027.

In other words, the "rate cuts throughout the second half of the year" script that the market had priced in has now been directly dismissed by one of Wall Street's largest institutions. The expectation of loose liquidity needs to be recalibrated, and the valuation anchors for risk assets must also shift accordingly.

For crypto, the short-term narrative of price rallies driven by rate cuts is becoming increasingly thin. Moving forward, the only factors that can truly support prices may be on-chain real demand and capital inflows themselves.