Bitcoin’s (BTC) price briefly tapped a new all-time high of $73,041 on Tuesday morning after the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading came in hotter than expected, a sign that inflation remains ‘sticky’ as the Federal Reserve struggles to reach their 2% inflation target.
Data provided by TradingView shows that despite the brief spike higher, Bitcoin has largely traded in a narrow range above $71,000 since breaching that level in early trading on Monday.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $71,810, a decrease of 0.35% on the 24-hour chart.
The February CPI showed prices climbed 0.4% over the previous month and 3.2% over the prior year, the largest monthly increase since September. On a "core" basis, which excludes the more volatile costs of food and gas, prices climbed 0.4% over the prior month and 3.8% over last year.
With both measures coming in higher than economists expected, the market is once again evaluating the likelihood of the Fed lowering interest rates, with most seeing June as the earliest such a cut would come.
The CME FedWatch Tool now shows the market gives a nearly 100% chance the Fed keeps rates changed at their meeting next week, while there is a 66% chance of a rate cut in June.
While many investors are patiently awaiting the first interest rate cut, and the anticipated rally in risk assets that will go along with it, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has urged the Federal Reserve to wait past June before implementing such a cut, arguing the central bank needs to shore up its inflation-fighting credibility.
“I think they have to be data-dependent. If I were them, I would wait,” Dimon said at the Australian Financial Review business summit via a livestream from New York. “You can always cut it quickly and dramatically. Their credibility is a little bit at stake here. I would even wait past June and let it all sort it out.”
He said that while the U.S. economy could almost be considered to be in a ‘boom’ time, care should be taken against embracing the soft landing narrative that many are pushing, saying he sees the odds of a recession around 65% and that stagflation remains a possibility.
He also reiterated his previous warnings about geopolitical tensions, such as the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, potentially weighing on global growth.
Dimon suggested the increase seen in debt and equity markets since late 2023 has some bubble-like characteristics and tied it back to pandemic-era fiscal and monetary stimulus, saying it was “still in the system; you can’t say that they’re gone.”
He also used the opportunity to express his personal feelings about Bitcoin, saying that a lot of the practical uses for the cryptocurrency were illegal activity like sex trafficking, fraud and terrorism, but once again defended the right for individuals to hold the top crypto.
“I don’t know what the Bitcoin itself is for, but I defend your right to smoke a cigarette; I’ll defend your right to buy a Bitcoin,” he said. “I won’t personally ever buy a Bitcoin.”
Dimon also briefly discussed the topic of artificial intelligence, saying JPMorgan had had two thousand people working on 400 use cases for the technology at the bank, while in his personal life, he uses AI to summarize books he does not have time to read.
