Bitcoin pushed past $65,000 on July 15 after a surprise 0.3% monthly drop in U.S. producer prices, hitting an intraday peak of $65,518 and lifting its market cap above $1.3 trillion. The move wiped out $209 million in short positions across crypto markets. One Nansen analyst points to the Federal Reserve’s late-July meeting as the next test.
Bitcoin broke through the $65,000 threshold on Wednesday, building on its July 14 gains as fresh U.S. inflation data landed. The producer price index deflated 0.3% month-over-month, a surprise for analysts who had expected prices to hold flat. That print mirrored the previous day’s consumer price index release and pushed the top cryptocurrency higher.
Shorts collapse as bitcoin peaks at $65,518
The rally broke a stretch of consolidation between $64,500 and $65,000 that ran from Tuesday evening into early Wednesday. Bitcoin peaked at $65,518 shortly after 8 a.m. EST, then retraced to trade just above $64,800 by 12:45 p.m. EST. The surge carried its market capitalization past $1.3 trillion and brought its monthly gain to roughly 10%, though the price sat about 3% below its June 16 level of nearly $67,000.
The swing punished bearish traders. In the derivatives market, over $58 million in leveraged bitcoin bets were wiped out, with shorts making up nearly 85%. Across the wider crypto market, liquidations reached $324 million, with short bets accounting for $209 million of that total.
Cooling inflation cuts Fed hike odds
The soft data reset rate expectations. As both CPI and PPI declined, the odds of the Federal Reserve raising rates at its upcoming meeting fell from just over 40% earlier in the week to 12%. Because the figures cover June, analysts warn they may not capture the latest conditions, particularly as damage to Middle East oil infrastructure emerges and Brent crude and WTI prices climb.
Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, said the inflation and liquidity channel is doing more work than the geopolitical hedge narrative. He pointed to spot bitcoin and ether ETF inflows on July 15 as evidence that the CPI print materially shifted the near-term outlook, with headline inflation slowing to 3.5% year-over-year against a 3.8% consensus. According to Sondergaard: “Short-term leveraged longs get flushed, and then accumulation resumes.”
For Sondergaard, the FOMC meeting on July 28 and 29 is the real binary event. If the CPI data holds and the Fed signals a credible pivot, he argues the conditions for sustained ETF inflows return.
Source: Bitcoin News
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