Bitcoin and Ethereum Steady Ahead of U.S. Consumer Prices Report

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, were steady hours heading into another U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer prices report.

The new Consumer Price Index report will be released at 8:30 a.m. EST. For now, things seem pretty tame in crypto markets.

Bitcoin price sitting just above $62,000—up 0.6% compared to the same time yesterday. And the Ethereum price, which had sunk to around $2,900, was down 0.2% since Tuesday morning, according to CoinGecko data.

Economists have been forecasting that the market is in for another disappointingly high Consumer Price Index report today. The CPI is one of the key metrics that the Federal Reserve uses to determine whether it should lower the federal interest rate. But analysts have flagged that gas prices have been on the rise and prices have been inching upwards in the services sectors.

It’s bad, but not necessarily terrible news, Michael Pugliese, senior economist at Wells Fargo, told Morningstar.

“The trajectory is still down,” he said, “but it’s been a more gradual downward move relative to the expectations coming into 2024.”

When the BLS issued its March Consumer Price Index report last month, it showed that personal expenditures in the U.S. had grown by 3.7%. The news that the U.S. economy had been growing slower than expected caused BTC and ETH to dip.

Bitcoin started the month having sunk below $60,000, briefly touched $65,000, and triggered the liquidation of hundreds of millions worth of derivatives positions along the way. More recently, the mix of macroeconomic factors—including the war in Israel’s War on Gaza and slowed growth in major economies like the U.S.—has sparked pessimism in crypto markets.

But there’s a little good news: Bitcoin billionaire Arthur Hayes said earlier this month that the bottom for BTC is already in.

“I expect prices to bottom, chop, and begin a slow grind higher,” he wrote in a recent blog post. But he noted that he wasn’t planning to add more Bitcoin to his bags.

“The recent intense puke out provides an excellent opportunity to unstake my USDe and spend synthetic dollars on high beta shitcoins,” Hayes said. “I’m buying Solana and doggie coins for momentum trading positions.”