The liquidations in the crypto market skyrocketed to $200 million on a daily scale as bitcoin, and most altcoins, dumped and pumped in a matter of hours. This came following reports about the US inflation rates, which spiked to a new 40-year high.

• CryptoPotato reported earlier today when the primary cryptocurrency had reclaimed $44,000 and seemed rather calm around that level.
• However, BTC neared $45,000 in the following hours, but the bullish run was stopped in its tracks after the US showcased its latest inflation rate numbers.
• After the Consumer Price Index displayed its highest percentage in over 40 years for the month of January of 7.5%, bitcoin headed straight south.
• In a matter of minutes, BTC dumped by nearly $2,000 to just over $43,000. Most alternative coins followed, but this retracement was short-lived.
• Bitcoin reacted well and initiated a leg up that drove it upwards by $2,000, thus breaching $45,000 for the second time in a few days. Somewhat expectedly, most altcoins followed suit.
• This enhanced volatility caused mass pain for some leveraged traders. Data from Coinglass shows that the liquidations shot up to over $200 million on a daily scale and more than $120 million in the past four hours.
• So far, the number of liquidated traders stands close to 70,000, while the single-largest liquidation order happened on FTX and was worth $1.5 million.

Bitcoin’s price tumbled by about $1,000 in less than a few minutes as the numbers for January’s consumer price index came on.

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used to gauge the average change over time in the prices that are paid by urban consumer for a basket of consumer goods and certain services.
• Many people also refer to it as an approximation of the current inflation rates.
• There are indexes available for various states and geographic areas.
• For January, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumer increased to 7.5% from 7% for December – not seasonally adjusted.
• February 2022 CPI information is scheduled for release for March 10th.
• With this in mind, a lot of polls expected an increase in the CPI, and it turned out to be a “sell-the-news” event for BTC’s price, which lost about $1,000 at the time of this writing – minutes after the numbers were released.

• At the time of this writing, bitcoin’s price sits at around $44K, down 1.7% in an hour and about 0.4% in 24 hours, but still up 19% on the weekly.

The past four days have been overwhelmingly bullish within the cryptocurrency community. Even though some caution is still present, it appears that the market sentiment is quickly brightening up.

• In the past four days, bitcoin’s price surged by a whopping 18% from slightly above $37,000 to above $44,000, where it’s trading at the time of writing this (on Bitstamp)

• As a matter of fact, the price went above $45K briefly during Tuesday’s trading session and reached as high as $45,500. It has since corrected and currently sits at around $44K.
• It’s safe to say that bears have seen better days, as, during this period, data from CryptoQuant reveals that over $229 million worth of short positions were liquidated in the perpetual markets.

• Bitcoin remains particularly volatile at the time of this post, and it’s important to be very vigilant and careful.
• It’s also worth noting that the aggregate funding rate is presently negative.