Bitcoin (BTC) continues to hold near $60K with a price point today of $59,708 (BTC/USD). This, despite the US economy putting some distance from recession worries and showing signs of improvement.
US inflation dropped this week, down to 2.9% from 3.0%. The US CPI report was positive as well, demonstrating that the economy is making progress toward stability and healthiness. Even retail sales and job reports were looking good, and all of this positive news helped to boost the stock market. Market indices were up multiple percentage points most days this week, marking one of the best weeks for market trading in 2024.
Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency market, however, struggled to retain consumer interest and dipped and then regained most of their losses. Bitcoin is still close to $60K but has dipped below that level as it reacts to new economic data.
Bitcoin Does the Unexpected
Analysts and market traders expected Bitcoin to go bullish when inflation data pointed to improvement and CPI data showed that the economy was recovering. That was not the case, though, and Bitcoin has continued to defy expectations all year long.
When Bitcoin halved, the expectation was that it would skyrocket shortly afterwards, but that hasn’t happened yet. Bitcoin reached a record high in March of this year when it hit $73,750. The coin has since dipped to just under $50K.
Bitcoin halved back on April 20th of this year. The coin was valued at $64,992 since then, and it has not passed $72,000 since that point. We have not seen Bitcoin explode since early this year, so the halving has not helped like it was expected to and the recent inflation and CPI data has not helped either.
This leaves many analysts to assume that Bitcoin may be stabilizing around $60K but that it is still volatile, fragile, and unpredictable. As Bitcoin goes, so goes much for the crypto market, and until there is strong sentiment behind a bullish Bitcoin, we should not expect much in the way of major gains for the wider cryptocurrency market.
