Bitcoin Wobbles At $80K After PPI Data Triples Forecast, Adding To Inflation Fears

• Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, climbed 0.6% in April, double Wall Street expectations.
• The latest PPI report followed Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected core CPI data, adding to inflation concerns.
• Bitcoin briefly fell below the $80,000 level, wiping out nearly $61 million in short bets. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market wobbled in early morning trade on Wednesday after wholesale inflation data came in hotter than expected, adding to pressure from Tuesday’s elevated consumer price index (CPI) report.

Producer prices rose 1.4% in April from the previous month, nearly triple Wall Street expectations for a 0.5% increase, according to economists polled by MarketWatch. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, climbed 0.6% during the month, double the estimate of 0.3%. 

On an annual basis, headline producer price inflation rose 6%, the biggest jump seen in four years. Meanwhile, core PPI increased 4.4%.

This comes after core consumer prices, excluding food and energy, on Tuesday reported a 0.4% increase in April from the prior month, slightly above Wall Street estimates of 0.3%. Annual core CPI climbed 2.8%, also ahead of expectations for 2.7%.

Bitcoin’s Price Takes A Momentary Hit

Bitcoin’s price fell below $80,000 momentarily, before recuperating to around $80,200. Still down 0.9% in the last 24 hours. Retail sentiment around the apex cryptocurrency on Stocktwits trended in ‘neutral’ territory over the past day, accompanied by ‘normal’ levels of chatter. 

The momentary dip also wiped out over $63 million crypto bets in the last hours, with long positions accounting for $61 million, according to CoinGlass data. The overall cryptocurrency market edged 0.6% lower, steady at around $2.76 trillion.

Solana (SOL) and Ripple’s XRP (XRP) led losses among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Solana’s price fell 2% in the last 24 hours to around $93. XRP’s price tumbled 1% to around $1.44. There were only two cryptocurrencies to post larger losses than Bitcoin in early morning trade, but retail sentiment around them on Stocktwits was optimistic. 

Sentiment around XRP trended in the ‘bullish’ zone over the past day, accompanied by ‘high’ levels of chatter. Meanwhile, sentiment around Solana dipped from ‘extremely bullish’ territory but remained in the ‘bullish’ zone, alongside ‘high’ levels of chatter.

Read also: Bitcoin Traders Brace For PPI Data, CLARITY Act — Could ‘Go Both Ways’ For BTC, Says MN Fund Investment Chief

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com