Bitcoin Price Shoots Up Above $98.5K Following Release of US December CPI Data

The United States Labor Department announced the highly-anticipated CPI and Core CPI data for December, which actually matched the overall expectations.

The prices of riskier assets like cryptocurrency headed straight north despite the fears of higher inflation and no interest cuts by the US Federal Reserve this year.

U.S. CPI: +2.9% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +2.9%)

U.S. CORE CPI: +3.2% YEAR-OVER-YEAR (EST. +3.3%)

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) January 15, 2025

As the post above demonstrates, the Consumer Price Index for December matched the 2.9% increase, which was the overall expectation. The Core CPI, which excludes more volatile sectors like food and energy, is slightly under the estimations at 3.2%.

Although the increase for December was the largest in eight months and slightly bigger than that for November, cryptocurrency prices reacted with immediate gains.

BTC stood at just shy of $97,000 in preparation for the CPI numbers but shot up immediately to over $98,500 after the news broke out. This is the asset’s highest price tag in just over a week.

Moreover, BTC is up by nearly ten grand since its bottom on Monday at $89,200. Perhaps the markets reacted prematurely to the upcoming inflation data, and investors acted ahead of the actual news.