Major coins rallied on Thursday evening as the global cryptocurrency market cap rose 2.85% to $906.4 billion at 7:23 p.m. EST.
| Coin | 24-hour | 7-day | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin BTC/USD | 5.3% | 12% | $18,870.89 |
| Ethereum ETH/USD | 2.2% | 13.3% | $1,417.34 |
| Dogecoin DOGE/USD | 3.9% | 12.65% | $0.08 |
| Cryptocurrency | 24-Hour % Change (+/-) | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Aptos (APT) | +21% | $6.40 |
| Frax Share (FXS) | +14.45% | $6.45 |
| Immutable (IMX) | +9.4% | $0.54 |
See Also: Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies
Why It Matters: Bitcoin and Ethereum were higher on Thursday after the consumer price index in the United States fell 0.1% month-over-month in December. Annual inflation is now at the lowest level since October.
Risk assets like stocks were buoyant after the release of the inflation data but struggled to find direction as the labor market remains tight. The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in December, exceeding economist expectations of 200,000, according to data from Labor Department earlier this month.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed 0.3% and 0.6% higher, respectively. U.S. stock futures traded flat at the time of writing.
“Bitcoin made a run towards the $18,500 level after inflation slowed for a sixth straight month. The nearing of the end of Fed tightening gave risky assets an initial boost, but that is quickly fading away,” said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at OANDA.
“Bitcoin was unable to break the $18,500 barrier, which suggests price might remain trapped in the trading range that has been in place over the past couple of months,” said Moya, in a note seen by Benzinga.
On-chain analysis firm Glassnode said that over the course of an hour on Thursday, over $93 million in Bitcoin short future positions were liquidated.
Michaël van de Poppe said he had closed his shorts as he didn’t see the conviction he’d like to see on Bitcoin. “Maybe sweep towards $18.5-18.7K before cooling off. No longs for me at this stage,” said the trader.
Santiment said Bitcoin is on the verge of breaking down the $19,000 resistance level for the first time since November 8. “Whales are beginning to take interest and are likely perpetuating this climb, with $1M+ [BTC] transactions rebounding to November 2022 levels.”
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