Bitcoin (BTC) hit eight-day highs into Friday’s Wall Street open as markets awaited key US inflation cues.
Key points:
- Bitcoin shows resilience despite macro market uncertainty with another push beyond $72,000.
- Key US inflation data increased the chances of risk-asset volatility to come.
- BTC price gains outperform macro assets since the start of the Iran conflict.
- Trump demands Fed rate cut ahead of PCE print.
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD climbing past $72,000 on Bitstamp for the first time since March 5.
Bitcoin avoided a sell-off despite global uncertainty over the Middle East conflict and its impact on oil supplies. The week’s macro data prints from the US further largely matched expectations, decreasing the risk of excess market volatility.
Friday was due to see the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index release for January — an important gauge known as the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation measure. The previous PCE print beat anticipated levels to hit its highest since late 2023.
Despite the oil crisis threatening a surge in inflationary forces, US President Donald Trump renewed demands for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to loosen policy. “Where is the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, today? He should be dropping Interest Rates, IMMEDIATELY, not waiting for the next meeting,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
As Cointelegraph reported, odds of a rate cut at the Fed’s March 18 meeting fell below 1% this week.
“Conviction is building” for Bitcoin bullish breakout
Among Bitcoin market participants, the focus was on price strength amid the macro chaos. “Bitcoin has remained surprisingly resilient following the recent geopolitical shock,” onchain analytics platform Glassnode summarized in the latest edition of its regular newsletter, “The Week Onchain.”
Glassnode flagged options-market activity showing that traders were less concerned about short-term risk. “An accumulation cluster is forming in the $62k–$72k range. However, its intensity is modest relative to prior phases that preceded sustained expansions,” it continued in an X post on Thursday while analyzing the cost basis of investors hodling BTC for six months or less. “Conviction is building, but the foundation for a mid-term breakout remains thin so far.”
Others noted that BTC/USD had outperformed other macro assets since the start of the events in Iran. “Passing the geopolitical stress test,” Joe Consorti, head of growth at Bitcoin equity company Horizon, commented. Bitcoin is the best-performing major asset since last month’s strikes on Iran. BTC is up 7.3%, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down 1-2%, gold is down 3.7%, and silver is down over 10%.
Passing the geopolitical stress test.
