Bitcoin prices rebounded above US$18,000 on Friday at 11:00 p.m. in Hong Kong as the U.S. Consumer Price Index, a key inflation indicator, rose 6.5% in December from a year earlier, matching expectations and continuing a downtrend from previous months.
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Fast facts
- Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, breached US$18,000 for the first time in nearly a month in the lead-up to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics releasing December’s inflation data on Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap data.
- Bitcoin’s value has recovered by more than 7% over the past week after recording yearly lows following the collapse of FTX, once the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange.
- Bitcoin is still down more than 70% from its peak in November 2021, when it reached a record high of over US$68,000. It was trading at US$18,100 Thursday midnight in Hong Kong.
- Ethereum also fell slightly after the inflation data was released, and was trading at US$1,386. It was up 4.62% in the 24 hours to midnight in Hong Kong.
- The S&P 500 opened Thursday 2.64% higher than the previous close, while the Nasdaq Composite started the trading day up 3.34%.
- Many investors hope the latest CPI data, which showed the largest monthly decline since April 2020, could slow down the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes.
- “The data confirms that inflation is finally being tamed, which means there’s a higher chance that the Federal Reserve will pursue less aggressive interest rate hikes in the world’s largest economy,” Nigel Green, chief executive of the fintech firm deVere Group said in an email to Forkast.
- Core CPI, which excludes energy and food prices, gained 0.3% month-over-month. Compared to a year ago, the Core CPI index has increased by 5.7%.
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(Updates headline and first paragraph to show Bitcoin prices gained.)