Bitcoin jumps past $50K as US CPI data shows highest inflation in nearly 40 years

Bitcoin (BTC) surged over $1,000 in seconds on Dec. 10 as the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showed inflation in November was worse than anticipated. 

November CPI conforms to expectations

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD running to $50,132 on Bitstamp as the data became public Friday.

An hour before the Wall Street open, the pair had already hit its highest level in over 24 hours.

CPI had been hotly awaited by both crypto and traditional finance analysts alike, with opinions favoring at least a 6.7% year-on-year increase for November, and even over 7%. In the event, the numbers broadly conformed to conservative guesses, reaching 6.8%.

CPI below expectations

Bullish

all markes popping

— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) December 10, 2021

The results nonetheless mean that inflation on CPI is at its highest in almost 40 years.

Still rangebound

Bitcoin’s short-term successes did not last long, with BTC/USD back under $50,000 at the time of writing.

Related: Bitcoin could hit $100K, gold $2K in 2022 thanks to 'deflationary forces' — Bloomberg analyst

The largest cryptocurrency remained trapped in a range with no visible upside bias, this requiring a break above $53,600 to change, analysts previously argued. 

Yes, there's been a decent amount of volatility for #BTC recently

In fact, $BTC has been threatening to lose this red support throughout the week but failing to confirm a breakdown

BTC has returned above red yet again

Still holding here until further notice#Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/739hdAooiI

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) December 10, 2021

Altcoins were unmoved by the CPI event, with Ether (ETH) still down 1.3% over the past 24 hours.

Out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, only Terra (LUNA) managed to eke out a small gain on the day.