Mooners and Shakers: Bitcoin protects $27k position after post-CPI roller coaster

The latest US CPI inflation data came in last night (AEST) with mild encouragement for markets, sending Bitcoin higher. But that move cooled off just as quickly as it came.

At the time of writing, however, the leading crypto asset appears to have defended a position at US$27k and is trying to build strength again.

Earlier, the US Consumer Price Index data revealed better-than-expected inflation figures, with YoY consumer prices rising in the US in April by 4.9%  – lower than the 5% recorded in March.

As Eddy’s Market Highlights details, however, there’s more nuance to it than just that leading figure, and US stock markets responded to the full report in a mixed way, “with the S&P 500 climbing by 0.24%, the Dow slipping by -0.22%, and tech heavy Nasdaq down by -0.63%”.

Bitcoin (BTC) initially pumped about 2.35%, above US$28,200 on the CPI release, but the move – like a Pommy tourist attempting to body surf at Bronte Beach – was swiftly wiped out.

And why was that then?

Well, the short, sharp crypto sell-off did pretty much correlate with similar action in the stock markets, but there has also been some more speculation floating around that the sneaky US government used the CPI timing to dump another load of its Silk Road-era confiscated Bitcoin.

Note, that’s a completely unverified event, and was been spread by a Twitter account known as WhaleWire, see below.

https://twitter.com/WhaleWire/status/1656353977821196288

Was this a case of misinformation and “FUD spreading”, however? Bad data? Others on Crypto Twitter now seem to think so.

Sorry guys, I saw a bunch of news coming in about the $BTC sell off being caused by the US government dumping BTC and I spread the FUD without properly verifying the info. I feel like a bit of a knob wombat. My bad, I will do better next time ☹️ I deleted the tweet.

— Lady of Crypto (@LadyofCrypto1) May 10, 2023

In any case, speaking of the US government, or at least crypto-hating Congressman Brad Sherman… Here’s another acknowledgement that money is, indeed, printed out of thin air. Shocker, right?

🚨#BREAKING – 🇺🇸 US Congressman Brad Sherman admits US govt prints money out of thin air:

“Crypto bros…will accuse the US government of making money out of thin air. Maybe we do, but we’re the US government.”

pic.twitter.com/IeAtqIC2PC

— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) May 10, 2023

Top 10 overview

So, yep, another CPI printout has been filed away, and where are we at? Pretty much exactly where we were this time yesterday in the crypto majors.

That said, there’s got to be at least some solace from traders and nervy crypto investors in the fact a slower pace of inflation has been shown, suggesting the Fed’s rate hiking is actually having something of an effect.

Pivot or pause narrative still alive and kicking, then? It’s still on the table, as a side or condiment, yeah.

Some tho(ugh)ts:
1/n
* #CPI coming in at 4.9% a smidge below expectations, and we see BTC and ETH up 2%. 📈
* 3 rate cuts heading into year end seems a tad less likely, but 2 cuts still feels on the table if you look at #FedWatch
… pic.twitter.com/COHvEZprmJ

— turbanether.eth (@turbanether) May 10, 2023

Uppers and downers

Some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

PUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

• Kava (KAVA), (market cap: US$456 million) +10%

• Arbitrum (ARB), (market cap: US$1.49 billion) +5%

• Cosmos Hub (ATOM), (market cap: US$3.21 billion) +5%

• Injective (INJ), (market cap: US$527 million) +5%

• Conflux (CFX), (market cap: US$568 million) +4%

PUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

• Milady Meme Coin (LADYS), (market cap: US$39 million) +2,803%

• Optimus AI (OPTI), (market cap: US$20 million) +51%

• GALA (GALA), (market cap: US$237 million) +11%

Hang on a sec. LADYS. Erm, what the absolute…? A +2,803 gain? What and why?

Quickest of quickfire context for you. There’s a reasonably popular, anime-style NFT collection called Milady Maker NFTs and they’ve exploded in value overnight thanks to that man Elon Musk, and this tweet here.

pic.twitter.com/4s6HwnCY74

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 10, 2023

A crypto token sprung up three days ago called Milady Meme Token. And now it, too, has absolutely mooned. Curious timing, don’t you think? Will it explode and dump near the stratosphere like a SpaceX rocket? We shall watch and see.

SLUMPERS

• Bitcoin SV (BSV), (market cap: US$722 million) -14%

• Bitcoin Cash (BCH), (mc: US$2.23 billion) -6%

• Stacks (STX), (mc: US$912 million) -5%

• Pepe (PEPE), (mc: US$803 million) -5%

• Chiliz (CHZ), (mc: US$593 million) -2%

SLUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

• FourCoin (FOUR), (market cap: US$18 million) -44%

• BOB Token (BOB), (market cap: US$33 million) -26%

• Ben (BEN), (market cap: US$45 million) -23%

Around the blocks

Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.

$BTC 1D

We touched the bottom of horizontal support perfectly yet people are bearish as can be.

1D volume still flat and does not indicate a breakdown is near.

People shorting for no reason going to cause a massive short squeeze in the future.#bitcoin #cryptocurrency pic.twitter.com/Vu7UWNgVO9

— Roman (@Roman_Trading) May 10, 2023

Feels like the meme season is coming close to an end

So from now on I’m going to be putting most of my focus back on to fundamentally sound projects, such as $BOB

— Caff (@ChadCaff) May 10, 2023

Ultimately, the YoY is great as it's lower than expected.

The MoM data is worse than expected and shows that inflation remains sticky.

End status; we'll be having a prolonged period with it and neutral data.

Chop season it is for #Bitcoin.

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) May 10, 2023