TL;DR
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~$100B was wiped from the crypto market, before (mostly) being regained, after Feb’s CPI print came in at 3.2% instead of 3.1% (seriously, that’s all it took).
Full Story
Welcome to Web3 Daily, where we stare at crypto charts all day, so you don’t have to!
That’s the excuse we make to ourselves at least.
(According to a certain therapist, it could actually be considered “obsessive behavior” which is “putting an immense weight on our relationships.”)
…but what does Dr. Stevens know — she doesn’t even own crypto.
Anyways…
While watching the charts yesterday, we witnessed a quick/violent dip, where ~$100B was wiped from the crypto market in ~1hr, after the release of Feb’s Consumer Price Index.
(Aka ‘CPI.’ Aka “how much more expensive has everything become in the past 12 months?”).
Here’s a rapid fire breakdown of how it all went down & why:
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Everyone expected CPI to have increased 3.1% since this time last year, but it came in at 3.2%
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This stoked fears that interest rates would be kept higher, for longer — putting pressure on the economy.
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The longer rates stay high, the less chance we’ll have of making a ‘soft’ landing (aka lowering inflation without going into a recession).
All of that played out over 1-2 hours, wiping ~$100B from the crypto market, before (mostly) regaining it all…
All from a .1% difference in expected CPI.
Economics, amiright?