Bitcoin Remains Unfazed by Slower Inflation in the U.S.

In May, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United States rose by 0.1%, compared to a 0.2% increase in April. Year-over-year, the unadjusted CPI climbed to 2.4%.

The primary driver of inflation was the housing sector, with the housing price index rising by 0.3% over the month (3.9% over the year). Similarly, food prices saw a comparable increase. In contrast, energy and gasoline costs decreased by 1% and 2.6%, respectively, in May.

The data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) fell short of analysts’ expectations, who had predicted a CPI value of 2.5%.

The Core CPI for May also came in below consensus estimates—2.8% in reality versus an anticipated 2.9%.

Swap and options markets are overwhelmingly confident that the Federal Reserve will maintain its key interest rate range of 4.25-4.5% following the meeting on June 18, with a probability of 99.8% for this scenario.

It is generally believed that increased liquidity availability tends to boost prices of risk assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency market had a muted reaction to the BLS data release. Bitcoin prices briefly surpassed $110,000, while Ethereum’s value rose above $2,800.

As reported by CoinGecko, all top-10 digital assets by market capitalization ended up in the «green» zone over the day, with TRON being the sole exception, experiencing a 1% decline in the last hour.

The stock market reacted with a similarly modest increase. At the time of this report, the Nasdaq Composite was up by 0.27%, the S&P 500 rose by 0.28%, and the Dow Jones index gained 0.18%.

It’s worth noting that Arthur Hayes, co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, suggested that a dovish shift by the Fed could lead to Bitcoin reaching $150,000 by the end of the year.