Bitcoin hits $76K after US PPI inflation stays tame: Will BTC hold its gains?

Bitcoin (BTC) reached monthly highs above $76,000 on Tuesday as US inflation data continued to buoy risk assets.

Key points:

• Bitcoin upside continues as bulls target $76,000 — the highest price since early February.

• US PPI inflation remains below market expectations despite the war in Iran having no end in sight.

• Bitcoin traders stay risk-off on overall market strength.

Bitcoin tops $76,000 amid fears that “inflation is back”

Data from TradingView showed new local highs of $76,038 on Bitstamp — Bitcoin’s best performance since mid-March and on track to hit a two-month record.

The March print of the Producer Price Index (PPI) came in below expectations despite the US-Iran war. 

“On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand rose 4.0 percent for the 12 months ended in March, the largest 12-month advance since increasing 4.7 percent in February 2023,” an official statement from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) noted. 

Markets had expected a 4.7% year-on-year increase, with a 1.1% month-on-month jump — but it ultimately came in at 0.5%.

Despite this, reactions were hawkish, noting that inflation was showing a clear uptrend overall.

“We are now officially seeing inflation metrics in the US that are at 4% or higher,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded on X.

Correspondingly, markets kept bets of interest-rate cuts from the Federal Reserve firmly at the end of next year, per data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.

Bitcoin’s 21-week trend line is a line in the sand

Among traders, BTC price action continued to cause suspicion.

Related: Oil price surges 8% on Iran tensions: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

CryptoReviewing, the pseudonymous cofounder of the trading community Wealth Capital, noted that the move to $75,000 had triggered a wave of short liquidations.

As Cointelegraph reported, market participants had already been gearing up for a short squeeze, with its price still stuck in its local range.

“Bitcoin's recent PA hasn't deviated much from what we saw in 2022,” Keith Alan, cofounder of trading resource Material Indicators, argued on the day.

Alan said that the trend line would “not be an easy level to break.”

“A rejection from that level would send the Weekly RSI back below the R/S flip line at 41, and send BTC to the next leg down,” he warned, referring to the relative strength index (RSI) indicator. 

Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on early RSI signals regarding a bear-market trend reversal.

The US passage of the CLARITY Act and the end of the war in Iran, on the other hand, could send Bitcoin back toward its yearly open price of $87,500.