Bitcoin tops $64,000 as cooling U.S. inflation guts the Fed rate-hike trade
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- Bitcoin climbed 3.6% to near $64,800 after June CPI came in cooler than expected, with roughly $31 billion changing hands over 24 hours and the coin up 3.3% on the week.
- June headline CPI fell to 3.5% from 4.2%, while core inflation eased to 2.6% from 2.9% — a drop that takes the food-and-energy argument for another Fed hike off the table, though core remains above the Fed's 2% target.
- Implied odds of a Fed rate hike collapsed from 43% to 13% after the print, and the two-year Treasury yield dropped six basis points.
- Ether led altcoin gains at roughly $1,880, up 5.3% on the day and 7.1% over seven sessions, with XRP, Solana, dogecoin, and BNB also advancing.
- CoinEx chief analyst Jeff Ko called bitcoin "a rate-sensitive risk asset rather than a macro hedge," saying the print eased immediate downside pressure but did not build a durable breakout, and flagged the September FOMC meeting as the next real test.
- Brent crude advanced 1% above $85 a barrel — an 11% two-session surge — after Trump threatened further strikes on Iran and the U.S. resumed its blockade of Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting MSCI's Asia Pacific gauge 2.3% and South Korea's Kospi 8.2%.
- CEX trading volumes rose for the first time in five months in June, with spot climbing 15.3% to $1.11 trillion and RWA perpetual volumes hitting a record $311 billion.
Why it matters: With the rate-hike argument effectively neutered by softer core inflation, traders rotated back into risk assets across crypto and global equities — the MSCI Asia Pacific gauge jumped 2.3% and SK Hynix rallied 13% in Seoul. But core at 2.6% still sits above the Fed's 2% target, so the September FOMC meeting is where positioning gets its next real test, alongside whether bitcoin ETF inflows can be sustained.
