Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Get Butterflies Ahead Of Valentine's Day Inflation Data: Analyst Warns Apex Crypto Could Fall To $18.5K

Major coins traded flat on Monday evening, as the market capitalization dropped by 0.85% in the last 24 hours to $1 trillion.

What Happened: The largest cryptocurrency by market value, Bitcoin BTC/USD, was trading at $21,727. Ethereum ETH/USD  was changing hands below $1,500 down 0.37% in the last 24 hours. Dogecoin DOGE/USD was marginally up 0.03% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.081. 

U.S. equities rose on Monday as investors looked ahead to Tuesday's much-anticipated inflation report and regained their momentum following a rough week in which the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite registered their worst declines in nearly two months. The S&P 500 rose by 1.14% to close at 4,137.29 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.48% to 11,891.79.

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Investors will be closely monitoring Tuesday’s release of the latest consumer price index to see how far the Federal Reserve's monetary policy has gone towards taming inflation and to predict the size of its next interest rate hike. 

With the CPI dropping to 6.5% in December, it has shown a continuing downward trend that has warmed the hearts of those investing in the higher-risk markets. Nonetheless, the Fed remains cautious of the effects of clamping down too hard and pushing the economy into a deep recession. 

The New York Department of Financial Services issued an order on Monday requiring Paxos to cease minting new Binance USD tokens (BUSD). According to the order, BUSD was not being administered in a “safe and sound” manner, resulting in its value dropping to 0.9950 cents against its rival tether USDT/USD on the Binance exchange.

Analyst Notes: “Cryptos are weakening as every trader worries about how crippling this SEC wave will be with the cracking down on staking products and stablecoins. The news flow has been rather bearish for crypto and you can’t forget about tomorrow’s inflation report which could be hot and spell trouble for risky assets," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.

"Despite all the negative news on the halt of minting of some news coins and fears that the regulators are expanding their crypto crackdown, Bitcoin is still above the $20,000 level. It might be hard for buyers to emerge until we see how Wall Street reacts with tomorrow’s inflation data. If inflation comes in scorching hot, Bitcoin could breach the key $20,000 level and target the $18,500 region.”

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe is calling for Bitcoin to finish above $20,500. 

Getting towards that region on #Bitcoin and, for now, the end stage of this correction.

Needs to hold above $20.5K. pic.twitter.com/dF3MxtYV8M

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 13, 2023

Pseudonymous analyst Smart Contracter is anticipating a strong four-hour rally on BTC leading up to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) announcement. After closely examining the charts, the analyst believes that the CPI announcement could cause the prices of crypto to skyrocket by "just looking at how the charts are lining up right now as ... every other [altcoin] looks exactly the same.”

solid 4h brewing on #btc coming into CPI, with 5 waves all accounted for within our C, gut is telling me CPI is gonna moon everything just looking at how the charts are lining up rn as basically every other alt looks exactly the same pic.twitter.com/mt7H0cN5pZ

— Bluntz (@SmartContracter) February 13, 2023

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