On Wednesday, Bitcoin (BTC) regained some of its gains following the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data release for May 2026. While the CPI reading matched the forecasts, the core CPI came slightly lower than expected, helping risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin shoots past $62K following expected inflation data
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released inflation data for May 2026, reporting an increase of 0.5 percent in CPI on a month-on-month (MoM) basis. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the reading came at 4.6 percent, in line with consensus.
However, the core CPI reading – which excludes the highly volatile food and energy components – came in at 0.2 percent, lower than what the economists were predicting at 0.3 percent. The YoY core CPI aligned with the forecasts at 2.9 percent.
Bitcoin showed some strength following the release of inflation data, as the leading cryptocurrency by reported market cap surged more than 5.8 percent from its local bottom created on Friday.
The following hourly chart shows Bitcoin surging as high as $62,800 before losing some of its gains. This behavior is in stark contrast to how BTC performed after April 2026’s higher-than-expected inflation data.
The inflation data reinforced the view that the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) will likely maintain the current interest rates at 350-375 bps at its June 17 meeting. The following chart from the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool gives a 96.2 percent probability of interest rates remaining unchanged.
However, expectations are that the Fed will likely hike the key rates by 25 bps during its December 9 meeting. Higher interest rates are going to be negative for risk-on assets. As of Wednesday, the market is giving a 42.6 percent chance of the rate hike later in the year.
Meanwhile, safe haven assets like gold declined. The precious metal is down 5.65 percent over the past 24 hours, trading at $4,116 per ounce at press time.
Analysts see more downside for BTC
While today’s inflation data gave some temporary relief to BTC, analysts are predicting that the top digital asset may be headed even lower. Crypto analyst CryptoBullet shared the following chart, saying that they’re targeting to bid BTC between $49,000 to $53,000.
Technical indicators show there might be some merit in CryptoBullet’s prediction. BTC’s Fibonacci levels show that it could tumble to $56,000 due to a lack of any structural support zone in between.
