Musalem makes an interesting point: QE fundamentally boils down to removing duration from the market. Right now, the Fed's bill purchases are ultra-short-term plays—quick rotations in and out.

But here's where it gets tricky. Once those purchases start creeping into the 3-year, then 5-year, then 7-year part of the yield curve, do we suddenly call it QE?

Technically, maybe. Philosophically? That's where the real debate lives. The moment the Fed stretches out those holding periods and sits on longer-dated securities, the mechanics shift. You're no longer just stabilizing the plumbing—you're actively managing the shape of rates.

For crypto traders watching macro flows, this distinction matters. Extended duration purchases typically signal a different inflation regime, different expectations around rate cuts, different liquidity dynamics entirely. It's not just a semantic thing—it changes how capital repositions across risk assets.