Traders Bet ECB Will Hike Four More Times, BoE Five as Energy Prices Stoke Inflation

The gap between market pricing and central bank guidance is the real story here: traders are effectively betting that officials will be forced to tighten further, which matters most for rate-sensitive assets, currencies and any yield-bearing instruments whose appeal shifts with policy expectations. For crypto and RWA markets, a more hawkish rates path tends to compete with risk appetite, though the driver — energy-led inflation — is a macro shock rather than a crypto-specific one. Whether this hawkish repricing holds, or fades if energy pressures ease, is the open question.