Prior to US inflation data for July, bitcoin exceeded the $65,000 mark, continuing a recovering trend owing to weaker US employment data and stronger demand from institutional investors. At around $64,955, it was up 0.66% in the last 24 hours and 4.36% in the last seven days, having reached a high of $65,245 within a session.
The next key macro event is the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July consumer price index (CPI) data on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 8:30 a.m. ET, coming on the heels of an unexpectedly weak U.S. employment report that reduced the outlook for renewed Federal Reserve tightening.
The economy lost 23,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in July, while the jobless rate was stuck near 4.1%. May and June’s payroll numbers were revised down by a combined 103,000 jobs.
Bitcoin initially rose by nearly 2% after the employment report on views that a softer hiring report would ease pressure on the Fed, but failed to hold above $65,000 in support. Fed officials’ comments on July 29, after the Fed held the target range steady at 3.50%-3.75%, were also non-committal, although three voting members on its Federal Open Market Committee voted for a 25bp hike.
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Coinciding with the price recovery was a surge in institutional demand: The site SoSoValue recorded a total of around $854 million in net inflows into US spot Bitcoin ETFs from 3 August to 7 August, with $694 million into BlackRock IBIT alone. Farside’s figures for those periods totaled $865.3 million, showing little divergence between the two datasets but a single week of important inflows for both sources.
Bitcoin price hit resistance again between $65,000 and $66,000. The RSI was at 55.07, above its moving average of 50.44 and neutral level of 50, indicating bullish momentum but not overbought. The Awesome Oscillator was bullish as well, at 664.19, but had small histogram bars, with momentum change not confirmed with a breakout.
