U.S. CPI triggers crypto volatility and Bitcoin price crashes at $45,000 again

The cryptocurrency market suffered a highly volatile session, as it renewed its vows with Wall Street and was carried away by the falls of the New York Stock Exchange after the publication of the CPI data of the world's leading power. US inflation climbed to 7.5% in January, the biggest rise since 1982, and the US trading floor suffered in the face of expectations that the US Federal Reserve will accelerate its monetary tightening. Bitcoin, which continues to act as a risk asset, fell as much as 6% in the February 10th session, but also left a positive note: a high above the $45,500 resistance. The close, however, remained at $43,500, the worst since the February 6th session. Now, it battles with the $43,000 range on Friday.

"Some analysts believed that inflation had already peaked, but Thursday's month-on-month data, up 0.6% versus the consensus 0.4%, suggests that there is still a long way to go before inflation starts to ease," stated Victoria Scholar, head of investments at Interactive Investor. The analyst anticipated that the Federal Reserve (Fed) may hike as many as six times this year. "Given the tightness of the labor market and the strength of the underlying economy, the Fed is already lagging inflation," she added.

As for Bitcoin, "it continues to see strong resistance around $45,500," stressed Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda, a control zone of great importance before the $48,000 level highlighted by Bolsamania's technical expert, Jose Maria Rodriguez. Chartists defended that this is the main reason for Thursday's session setbacks and that US inflation was merely a catalyst for what was already anticipated in the price action. "What is encouraging is that we are not seeing any real pullbacks from these levels, which suggests there is a lot of enthusiasm," Erlam interjected.

"There seems to be a growing belief that the worst is over and we've all seen before what cryptocurrencies can do once they have some momentum behind them. A break of $45,500 would be very bullish, and $52,500 could be the next test, the Oanda expert commented.

Other positive signs for the cryptocurrency queen are that despite Thursday's pullback, the Bitcoin fear and greed index held steady at 50/100 overnight. After pulling back from 54/100 on Thursday, it was key to avoid a sharper drop.

In the short term, however, the trend will be key. The index will need to break back above Wednesday's 54/100 and reach 55/100 to support the digital currency's run to $50,000.

Experts warn, however, that the market will continue to digest the U.S. inflation figure and discount with greater conviction what the Federal Reserve (Fed) will do next, so elevated volatility may once again rage as the week comes to a close for traditional markets. For Bitcoin this may translate into a high-stress weekend. Supports for Bitcoin are at $42,500 and $41,500 in round figures.

In other market news, Ethereum's price action is somewhat more worrisome, with both the low and close on February 10th having been below $3,100. Thursday's high, however, remained above $3,200, which keeps its technical appearance of the past few days more or less intact.

The market's second most traded cryptocurrency is now targeting resistance at $3,400 and $3,600, according to technical analysis, after recovering nearly 30% from January's lows.

As for other tokens, Ripple is down more than 6%, as well as Solana, Terra, Polkadot and Shiba Inu. Total capitalization is just under $2 trillion.