bitcoin It shrugged off fears of inflation almost as quickly as print came.
The largest cryptocurrency fell to $79,879 late in the US on Tuesday after the April consumer price index came in at 3.8% year-on-year, higher than economists had estimated, with gasoline prices driving most of the rise since the war with Iran began. BTC recovered to $81,208 on Wednesday Asian morning, ending the session up 0.3% over 24 hours after trading a range of $1,400. The dip was bought aggressively.
Among major currencies, BNB led with a 2.5% gain to $677, while dogecoin added 1.3% to $0.1114. Ether fell 0.3% in 24 hours to $2,300 and is now down 3.2% in seven days, the laggard of the cohort. Solana fell 0.6% to $95.52. XRP was trading at $1.45, down 0.5% on the day.
The CPI print shook traditional markets more than cryptocurrencies. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9%, with semiconductor stocks taking the brunt of the selling after weeks of outsized gains.
The rate-sensitive two-year Treasury yield remained just below 4%, while the 20-year Japanese bond yield surpassed its January peak to hit the highest level since 1997, as high energy prices add to global inflationary pressure.
Asian stocks recovered from early losses after the White House confirmed that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would join President Donald Trump’s trip to China, boosting futures for the chipmakers.
Flows underlying cryptocurrencies remain positive. CoinShares last week reported global crypto fund inflows of $858 million, of which bitcoin products absorbed $706 million, ether $77 million, solana $48 million, and XRP $40 million.
The most important data was the outflows of $14 million of bitcoin short positions, the largest weekly short liquidation of 2026. Money is abandoning bearish bets on bitcoin even as the macro tape becomes more choppy, which is the type of positioning exchange that typically precedes rallies rather than capitulations.
FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said the broader sentiment index has settled just below the midpoint of its range, recording readings of 47, 48 and 49 over the past three days, suggesting the bears still have a slight advantage.
Bitcoin “lost its bullish momentum as it approached the 200-day moving average,” he said in a note, referring to the long-term trend line that smooths out short-term price noise.
“Although this line is trending downward, the market has failed to break above it over the past six days. On the other hand, since the drop is quite modest, it seems like nothing more than a respite after a rally.”
CoinShares also noted that last week’s surge in inflows was accompanied by a compromise on the treatment of stablecoin performance under the CLARITY Act, which the Senate Banking Committee is expected to consider next week. Regulatory progress is one of the few clear tailwinds the market has had since the war with Iran began, and it is being reflected in flow data rather than price action.
For now, Bitcoin at $81,000 after such a high CPI and such a tight Treasury yield setup is the kind of behavior that suggests structural buyers are still active below the price. The next test is whether that will hold during next week’s Senate markup and the next round of macroeconomic data.
