Volatility has stuck the crypto market as the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum trend to the downside. The two largest cryptocurrencies are reacting negatively and with volatility to the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) print, a metric used to measure inflation. Related Reading: Bitcoin (BTC) Closes Week Above $21K, Is Bullish Reversal In Sight? At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $21,600 after a rejection north of $22,000 and a 4% loss in the last 24 hours. Ethereum (ETH) trades at $1,640 with a 6% loss over the same period after an aggressive crash from a major resistance area near $1,8000. Both cryptocurrencies made a sudden move to the downside before the CPI print. Bitcoin quickly dropped to around $21,300 while Ethereum crashed to $1,640, the current price action is filling into those downside moves and hints at a potential further downside for the cryptocurrencies. CPI Prints Beats Expectations, What Does It Mean For Bitcoin? The U.S. CPI print came in at 8.3% with a core CPI rising to 6.3%, expectations for the former stood at 8.1%. In other words, the market was expecting inflation to be lower than today’s metrics with the hopes of relief in monetary policy from the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed). A low CPI combined with a slowdown in the economy might have provided the financial institution with room to relax on its interest rate hike. However, market participants are pricing in another 75 basis points (bps) hike ...
