Bitcoin consolidates near $78,000 as investors await key US inflation, Fed cues

Bitcoin consolidated near the $78,000 mark on Thursday as the upcoming U.S. CPI data and the Federal Reserve’s rate decision have become the key near-term catalysts. The cryptocurrency was trading at $77,942 mark.

In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin was down 1.35%, and Ethereum was down 1.09% to trade at the $2,467 mark. Among the major altcoins, BNB, XRP, Solana, Hyperliquid, Dogecoin, and Cardano corrected up to 5.98%, and Tron was up 0.32%.

Avinash Shekhar, Co-Founder & CEO, Pi42 said Bitcoin’s current consolidation near $78,000 reflects a market waiting for clarity rather than a loss of conviction and after Bitcoin’s sharp recovery from the July lows, this pause is a natural part of the market finding its next direction.

The bigger takeaway is that macroeconomic data could determine the direction of the next move across the crypto market, Shekhar further said.

The global crypto market capitalisation edged down 1.87% to $2.66 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. The crypto fear and greed index has slightly risen to 73, while sentiments have turned to greed, said the CoinDCX Research Team.