August 18th Bitfinex alpha | Bitcoin AS leads to integration
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Bitcoin retracted 5.4% last week after a brief push to a new history-high $123,640, as US inflation data, which is hotter than expected, curtailed risk appetite. The move highlights the market’s sensitivity to macro headwinds, with BTC currently combining the low ATH and local range. Until more powerful catalysts emerge, such as Dovish Fed signals and updated ETF influx, price actions may remain bound to range, reflecting digestion rather than complete weakness.
Ethereum is outstanding, rising from $1,386 in April to $4,783 last week, within the 2021 peak of $4,864. Its strength is to promote a risk spin-off to higher beta assets, reflected in Bitcoin’s control, which has slipped from 65% to 59% over the past two months.
This shift underscores the growing speculative appetite, but it also increases vulnerability across altcoins where rallies remain short-lived without structural influx. Major continues to lock the flow of facilities, leaving a wider market at a key inflection point.
The latest US inflation report highlights the persistence of price pressures as both the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI) highlight the way tariffs and services costs continue to strain households and businesses. The July CPI showed headline moderation, primarily due to a decline in gasoline prices, but core inflation rose at its fastest pace in six months driven by an increase in the service sector and tariff-related products.
Meanwhile, the July PPI revealed even sharper pressure on producers, with input costs rising more than expected, outweighing consumer prices. This growing gap between producer and consumer prices indicates that profit margins are tightening as businesses struggle to ease demand while absorbing tariff-related costs. Together, the report illustrates the cycle of building inflationary pressures from both supply and demand aspects, complicating the Federal Reserve path ahead of the September policy meeting. Although the market initially focused on softer headline CPIs, deeper details in the report suggest that inflation is far from being curbed, and expectations for rapid rate cuts suggest that tax-driven costs and the stickiness of the services sector are optimistic as it places emphasis on growth and corporate revenue outlook.
Meanwhile, last week, it highlighted that digital assets are becoming more ingrained in global finance. In the US, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent has reviewed a strategic Bitcoin Reserve plan built on confiscated assets and explored a “budget-neutral” way to expand its holdings while halting government BTC sales.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s SFC has rolled out some of Asia’s strictest management rules for licensed exchanges, cold wallet protection, whitelist withdrawals and real-time surveillance. Overhaul aims to strengthen investors’ trust and position Hong Kong as a major regulatory gateway for the adoption of institutional crypto.
On the corporate side, Gemini, a central exchange, has revealed a restructuring that despite rapid losses, has filed for the NASDAQ IPO, shifting users to Florida and shifting their $75 million stubcoin credit line from Ripple. This list will mark the third publicly published US exchange, increasing transparency and competitive benchmarks across the sector. Finally, the Federal Reserve has ended special surveillance programs for banks engaged in crypto and fintech and have returned them to regular supervision. In addition to similar moves by the FDIC, SEC and OCC, this illustrates a shift towards mainstream digital asset activity within traditional banking frameworks, clearing the path to deeper institutional integration.
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