Helium surges as Bitcoin and Ethereum hover at key levels

• Helium rose double digits as did 1inch and NEM after US inflation data 
• Bitcoin price on the other hand touched $31k on Coinbase and Ethereum hovered near $1.9k.
• Consumer prices rose 0.2% month-over-month and 3% year-over-year in June.

Bitcoin moved slightly higher on Wednesday after stock markets reacted positively to the latest US inflation data. However, the flagship cryptocurrency continued to hover near a crucial level as bulls looked to retest year-to-date highs.

BTC was changing hands near $30,800 at 11 am ET, having touched intraday highs of $31k on Coinbase

Elsewhere in the crypto market, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap Ethereum was trading towards $1,900 as the total market cap rose 1.5% to above $1.24 trillion. The rest of the top 10 coins were also green at the time of writing. 

Litecoin, which had plunged 10% in the past week by early morning, had recouped some of the losses and was 5% down in that timeframe.

The biggest gainers in the past 24 hours among the top 200 by market cap were 1inch, NEM and Helium. All three had seen double digit upsides with HNT trading to highs of $1.48.

Bitcoin, altcoins move higher on CPI data release

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday too as the US consumer price index (CPI) data for June showed inflation had cooled year-over-year during the past month. Prices rose 0.2% month-over-month and 3% YoY in June, the latter a deceleration from the 4% recorded in May.

According to data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI was at its slowest in June, with the last time it was at this pace being March 2021.

Commenting on the CPI release, Charlie Bilello, Chief Market Strategist at Creative Planning Investor tweeted:

“US CPI has moved down from a peak of 9.1% last June to 3.0% today. What’s driving that decline? Lower rates of inflation in fuel oil, gasoline, gas utilities, used cars, medical care, apparel, new cars, food at home, electricity and transportation. Shelter is the only major component that has a higher inflation rate than a year ago and it is a wildly lagging indicator (actual housing inflation is much lower w/ home prices/rents down YoY).”

The Federal Reserve paused its interest rate hike cycle last month, although it noted it was likely to go for a 0.25% hike on another two occasions before the end of 2023. How markets react to upcoming central bank moves will be key to both equities and crypto.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research LLC notes markets still expects a 25 bps rate hike on July 26.

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Despite the better-than-expected CPI report today, the probability of a July 26 rate of 25 basis points to 5.25% to 5.50% barely moved.

The market is strongly expecting a hike in two weeks. pic.twitter.com/Kl2N5CEdPN

— Jim Bianco (@biancoresearch) July 12, 2023