Bitcoin briefly rose above $111,500 as traders bet on a Fed rate cut next week.
Cryptocurrency markets posted modest gains on Friday, October 24, after the latest US economic data showed annual inflation rising to 3% for the first time since January, increasing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2% to more than $111,500 at one point before falling back slightly, while the cryptocurrency’s market cap rose 1.5% to $3.85 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
Ethereum (ETH) rose 2.6% over the past 24 hours to $3,973, while BNB (BNB) rose 2.8% to $1,117, trading mostly flat after surging yesterday on news that Binance founder Changpeng Chao received a US presidential pardon.
XRP (XRP) rose another 4% to $2.50, extending its weekly gain to nearly 10%.
Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) both rose over 1% on the day.
Most of the remaining top 100 crypto assets by market capitalization have risen between 1% and 3% in the past 24 hours, reversing some of their recent losses as the market faces geopolitical uncertainty and trade war concerns.
Analysts at Glassnode noted in Friday’s XPost that Bitcoin’s relative unrealized loss (which measures the USD loss of all coins currently underwater) remains below 5%, a sign of a continued bull run.
“The current bull market has maintained this structure since November 2023 and is more persistent than comparable phases in the past two cycles,” they said.
big moves and liquidations
Among the top 100 assets, ChainOpera AI (COAI) and Zcash (ZEC) were once again the biggest gainers, increasing by 21% and 14%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the biggest losers today were Tron (TRX) and Memecore (M), down 3.2% and 2.4%, respectively.
According to Coinglass data, $246 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, including $153.5 million short and $92.6 million long. Of this amount, Ethereum accounted for $72.3 million, followed by Bitcoin at $61.3 million and altcoins at $19.5 million.
ETFs and the macro environment
According to SoSoValue, on Thursday, October 23, the Spot Bitcoin ETF recorded net inflows of $20.33 million, while the Spot Ethereum ETF recorded net outflows of $127.5 million. Glassnode analysts noted in a separate X post that Bitcoin ETF outflows often coincide with local market lows.
“Historically, when flows stabilize or turn positive, they coincide with new demand and the early stages of a trend recovery,” Glasnoed added.
On the macro level, today the first US economic report since the government shutdown, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for September, was released. The U.S. inflation rate rose to an annual rate of 3%, the highest rate so far this year, but growth was slower than expected from 2.9% in August, the report said.
The month-on-month price increase rate was 0.3%, slightly lower than economists’ expectations of 0.4%.
Without food and energy, prices rose 0.2% for the month and 3% for the year, slightly less than expected.
“Liquidity remains patchy as banks take advantage of the Fed’s repurchase facility and short-term funding markets show mild stress, which could amplify post-CPI volatility,” Bitfinex analysts said in comments shared with The Defiant.
In a commentary for The Defiant, crypto analyst and Coin Bureau co-founder Nick Pucklin said the report was the “most influential” report of the year, given that no other government economic reports have been released since the shutdown. He added:
“As liquidity fades towards the end of the week, barring any negative news later in the day or over the weekend, we could see a more pronounced rally as investors continue to rotate out of gold and into Bitcoin. If Bitcoin manages to overcome the $116,500 resistance level, it could pave the way for a new all-time high.”