Bitcoin pulled off the inflation scare almost as quickly as the print landed.
The biggest cryptocurrency fell to $79,879 in late US hours on Tuesday after the consumer price index for April came in at 3.8% year-on-year, hotter than economists had estimated, with petrol prices rising the most since the Iran war began. BTC recovered to $81,208 by Asian morning on Wednesday, ending the session up 0.3% over 24 hours after trading at $1,400. The dip was bought aggressively.
Among the majors, BNB led with a gain of 2.5% 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 the seven-day cohort lag. Solana fell 0.6% to $95.52. XRP is trading at $1.45, down 0.5% on the day.
The CPI print rattled traditional markets harder than crypto. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.9%, with semiconductor stocks taking the bulk of the selling after weeks of big gains.
The interest-sensitive two-year government yield held just below 4%, while Japan’s 20-year bond yield broke its highest level in January to hit the highest level since 1997, as high energy prices add to inflationary pressures globally.
Asian stocks clawed back early losses after the White House confirmed that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would join President Donald Trump’s trip to China, lifting chipmaker futures.
The flows under crypto are still positive. CoinShares reported global crypto fund inflows of $858 million last week, with bitcoin products absorbing $706 million, ether $77 million, solana $48 million and XRP $40 million.
The biggest data point was $14 million in outflows from bitcoin short positions, the biggest weekly short liquidation in 2026. Money leaves bearish bets on bitcoin even as the macro band gets choppier, the kind of position shift that typically precedes upside grinds rather than capitulations.
FxPro chief market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said the broader sentiment index has settled just below the midpoint of its range, registering readings of 47, 48 and 49 over the past three days, suggesting bears still have a slight upper hand.
Bitcoin “lost its upward 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 down, the market has failed to break through it in the last six days. On the other hand, since the decline is quite modest, it looks like nothing more than a respite after a rally.”
CoinShares also noted that last week’s inflow surge came with a compromise on the treatment of stablecoin dividends under the CLARITY Act, which the Senate Banking Committee is expected to consider next week. The legislative progress is one of the few clean tailwinds the market has had since the Iran war began, and it shows in the flow data rather than the price action.
For now, bitcoin holding $81,000 after such a hot CPI print and such tight financial returns is the kind of behavior that suggests structural buyers are still active below the price. Whether it holds through next week’s Senate markup and the next round of macro data is the next test.
