Bitcoin price fails to seal fresh CPI gains as $18K support hangs in balance

bitcoin (BTC) wobbled to $18,000 at the Jan. 12 Wall Street open even as US inflation continues to fall.

Bitcoin traders remain cautious after CPI

Data of Cointelegraph Pro Markets Y TradingView showed that BTC/USD encountered predictable volatility around the release of the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

The first such release of 2023, the event preceded the start of trading on Wall Street, with Bitcoin briefly rising before again threatening a crash below the $18,000 mark.

In doing so, the largest cryptocurrency copied the behavior of the previous month, with resistance at $18,500 untested.

CPI came in at 6.5% yoy, in line with most predictions. According to CME Group FedWatch Toolmarkets were correspondingly betting on a smaller 0.25% interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve at its February Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

For traders, it was still a case of "wait and see" despite the continuing downward inflation trend in the US.

“Not all pumps mean a bottom has been hit and a reversal is in the offing,” popular Crypto trader and analyst Tony warned in part from a Twitter update.

“We enter a bull market when we see higher highs and higher lows in Bitcoin that we don't have yet.”

Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, also suggested that Bitcoin could see a temporary dip next before joining a broader risk-asset rally on the back of the CPI data.

“Another month in which inflation falls, now below November 2021. Month to month even showing negative numbers,” he said. tweeted.

“Fuel for a 2-4 month relief period for markets, but probably a near-term correction soon for Bitcoin.”

A later post reinforced the chances of a drop “probably” for BTC/USD, potentially towards $17,700.

'Sticky' inflation causes stocks to open flat

Meanwhile, the shares, which had already been listed on the IPC result, remained mute in the hour after the open.

Related: 13% of BTC supply returns to profit as Bitcoin sees 'massive' buildup

At the time of writing, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index were 0.2% higher on the day.

Popular analysis account Tedtalksmacro indicated that core inflation remained "sticky", which could serve to discourage confidence despite the overall trend.

"The clear trend is that inflation has been brought under control + we have yet to see the lag impact of the Fed hikes," he said. continued.

“I have no advantage trading this cheat sheet, but where I do have an advantage is spotting the trend in the data early… dips are to buy Q1 and Q2, shorts are -EV for me this environment".

Crypto markets kept short liquidations in check that day, with Bitcoin wiping out $33 million of positions on Jan. 12, along with $21 million of long positions, Coinglass data showed.

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