Bitcoin (BTC) topped $22,000 after the Wall Street open on Feb. 14 as US inflation data returned “mixed” results.
BTC Price Hits 5-Day Highs Thanks to CPI
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked the BTC/USD pair as it tested multi-week lows twice on short time frames before reversing higher.
The pair recorded sudden volatility, in line with forecasts, when the figures for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January were released, something that was repeated at the beginning of the day on Wall Street.
However, the reaction of Bitcoin, which is still within a tight range, was quite subdued, moving up and down several hundred dollars at a time.
This was reflected in the CPI data itself, which in general was in line with market expectations. A moderate exception was the year-on-year rate, which was 0.2% above the 6.2% forecast.
“Mixed US Inflation”, wrote market commentator Holger Zschaepitz in part of a reaction on social media.
US inflation mixed. Jan CPI was inline w/St on MoM basis, coming in +0.5% headline & +0.4% core. On YoY basis, things ran bit hot, coming in +6.4% headline (down from +6.5% in Dec but ahead of St’s +6.2%) & +5.6% core (down from +5.7% but ahead of St’s +5.5%). (@knowledge_vital) pic.twitter.com/do5yNoEyIa
—Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) February 14, 2023
Crypto circles also highlighted the lack of panic that accompanied the reaction of the crypto markets.
“This looks to be one of the least volatile market reactions to US CPI since 2022,” commented Game of Trades.
With few signals coming from the macro economy, Bitcoin traders looked at the potential highs and lows of the range to determine future short-term price action.
“Adjusted daily range at this time”, summarized Crypto Chase next to an explanatory chart.
“I think we ultimately interact with both the red box and liquidity below. I would watch for shorts from the red box and longs after sweeping through liquidity at $20,300.”
Fellow analyst Skew added that traders had reduced their exposure to BTC following the publication.
$BTC Perp CVD Buckets & Delta Orders
Market is definitely bias to holding short positions.
Some whales reduced longs post CPI. pic.twitter.com/fogJG1XxkJ— Skew Δ (@52kskew) February 14, 2023
Prior to that, tracking by Material Indicators had revealed that the whales were setting what it called a trap for retail investors.
#FireCharts shows #Bitcoin whales trying to lure retail in at higher levels ahead of the #ICC as purple whales sell into retail bid liquidity. Also note that the buy wall has returned to the $24.4k range in 2 levels. If the $6M up top gets hit, I expect the lower $18M to rug.#nfa pic.twitter.com/sG3O9IzXhC
— Material Indicators (@MI_Algos) February 14, 2023
DXY remains in the spotlight
As for equities, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index opened unchanged.
The US dollar index (DXY), in the crosshairs of some on the eve of a week’s worth of macroeconomic data releases, briefly spiked above 103.5 before returning to base.
“I said to watch the DXY. It almost made it to the green box and bounced. Should it start moving higher, bearish for cryptocurrencies in my opinion,” wrote popular trader, Crypto Ed, in part of his latest Twitter updates.
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