Friday, August 22, 2025: Jerome Powell delivered his Jackson Hole address

Friday, August 22, 2025: Jerome Powell delivered his Jackson Hole address. "The shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance," he said. The Dow surged as much as 987 points to about 45,746, an all-time high.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals approved the joint dismissal ending SEC vs. Ripple that same day. With the SEC's earlier waiver of 'bad actor' disqualification, Ripple maintains full access to U.S. capital markets.

Following Powell's speech, the rate cut probability jumped to 91%. At the same time, regulatory clarity was solidified for secondary market token sales.

Powell announced that the Fed would revisit its monetary policy framework, which was adopted in 2020 and targeted "flexible average inflation." It seems that the market's interpretation is: Things are shifting from restriction to accommodation. The 2.2% surge in XLRE, Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (chart attached), would suggest as such.

The Federal Reserve is ending its "Novel Activities Supervision Program" for digital assets, which means banks will now monitor blockchain through standard supervisory processes. Previously, digital asset activities required special oversight, which signaled to banks that this was experimental. Standard supervision means blockchain operations are now treated no differently than ACH payments.

In traditional finance, settlement still takes from one to three days. XRPL, a blockchain network, achieves settlement in 3-5 seconds. When banks no longer need special programs to get involved with blockchain, and courts confirm tokens aren't securities, the infrastructure question answers itself: Integrate what works.