‘Bart Simpson’ Pattern Pushes Bitcoin Price Below $60K Despite Inflation Slowing

The price of Bitcoin posted a classic “Bart Simpson” pattern on Wednesday despite the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — a key measure of inflation — coming in cooler than expected.

A Bart Simpson pattern describes when sharp price gains fully retrace following a brief period of sideways consolidation — producing a chart reminiscent of the head of Bart Simpson, the spiky-haired cartoon character from The Simpsons.

BTC last changed hands for $59,360 after rallying to $61,500 earlier today.

Bitcoin (BTC) is sitting on a 0.5% loss over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum (ETH) is down 0.3% at $2,645, Polkadot (DOT) dropped 1.7% to $4.43, and Solana (SOL) sank 0.3% to $145.4 over the same period.

Toncoin (TON) was the strongest performing top 100 cryptocurrency by market capitalization with a 9.6% gain, followed by Flare (FLR) with 9.5%, and Aave (AAVE) with 8.3%. Sui (SUI) suffered the sharpest decline with a 6.2% drop, followed by Dogwifhat (WIF) with a 3.3% loss.

U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $24.3 million in net inflows on Tuesday, following positive flows on Monday, according to Farside Investors. Nearly $39 million flowed into spot Bitcoin ETFs as well.

QCP Capital analysts commented that institutional buyers were primarily responsible for crypto markets recovering from the violent crash suffered by global markets early last week.

“With consistent ETF inflows and BlackRock buying the dip last week, crypto seems relatively well supported,” QCP Capital analysts wrote. “With no major catalysts on the horizon, we anticipate limited major breakouts until Q4.”

In the last 24 hours, roughly 41,360 traders were liquidated, wiping out $142 million worth of positions, according to CoinGlass data. Longs accounted for 59% of the margin calls.

Inflation continues to slow

Fresh data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the CPI, which tracks the cost of goods and services in the United States, came in lower than expected with a 0.2% increase in July. The news follows CPI dropping by 0.1% in June.

Prices have now increased by 2.9% over the past 12 months, comprising the smallest annual increase since March 2021. Economists had expected a 3% increase over the year.

Slowing inflation indicates the Federal Reserve may soon move to reduce interest rates, likely serving as a boon to risk assets like cryptocurrencies.

In the broader financial market, stock futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.10% while S&P 500 futures rose by 0.15%, and Nasdaq 100 futures increased by 0.20%.