Bitcoin’s Rollercoaster Towards $20K, Inflation Numbers, and Google’s Foray into Crypto: This Week’s Recap

The past week saw the total cryptocurrency market lost about $30 billion in the past seven days, where most of the action took place yesterday. This was somewhat expected, given the US Bureau of Labor Statistics published the CPI numbers then. Let’s dive in.

Bitcoin spent the majority of the week slowly bleeding out. The cryptocurrency was showing absolutely no signs of strength, which resulted in a painful chop and a decline below $19,000 on a couple of occasions. All this changed on Thursday.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics published the numbers for September’s Consumer Price Index yesterday. This is the most common indicator that investors use to gauge inflation and it clocked in at 8.2%. This sent the market into a state of massive volatility. In the seconds after the numbers were released, Bitcoin’s price plunged towards $18,000, only to recover moments later.

In less than an hour, the cryptocurrency was testing $20,000, leaving tens of millions worth of liquidated positions. At the time of this writing, BTC trades at around $19,500, charting 5% gains in the past 24 hours but down slightly less than 3% on the week.

Elsewhere, the other major news of this week was the fact that the tech mogul and one of the world’s largest companies – Google – announced that it will start accepting cryptocurrency payments for some of its services. More specifically – for cloud services. To make it possible, Google tapped the leading US-based crypto exchange, Coinbase.

Binance conducted its scheduled BNB burn, destroying a whopping $575 million worth of it and forever taking it out of circulation. In another interesting turn of events, Justin Sun – the founder of Tron Network – revealed that he is one of the largest holders of Huobi Tokens. He said that he has tens of millions of it.

All in all, it was an exciting week, but the turbulence was mostly event-driven. It’s interesting to see if this volatility will carry on during the next few days or if the market will once again return to a state of sideways action.

Market Data

Market Cap: $945B | 24H Vol: $70B | BTC Dominance: 39.6%

BTC: $19,528 (1.66%) | ETH: $1,332 (0.7%) | BNB: $287 (4%)

Massive Bitcoin Volatility as US Inflation Clocks in at 8.2%. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics published the CPI numbers for September. According to them, inflation clocked in at 8.2% for the month, resulting in massive volatility for Bitcoin and throughout the entire cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Skyrockets 13% After Highest Increase Since May 2021. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty increased by a whopping 13% this month. It happened after the protocol went through another difficulty adjustment, which turned out to introduce the highest increase since May 2021.

Justin Sun Says He’s One of the Biggest Holders of Huobi Token (HT). Justin Sun, the founder of Tron Network, said that he started purchasing Huobi Tokens all the way back in 2013. He revealed that he’s one of the largest HT holders and that he owns “tens of millions” of it.

$575 Million Worth of BNB Burnt by Binance. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by means of trading volume and daily users, continues to burn BNB. The platform destroyed a whopping $575 million worth of Binance Coin in its latest burn.

Google to Accept Crypto for Cloud Services: Partners with Coinbase. Tech mogul Google will start accepting cryptocurrency for payments for certain services as early as next year. The move will be made possible through a partnership with the leading US-based crypto exchange – Coinbase.

Uptober Turns to Hacktober as Crypto Exploits Skyrocket. The month of October is breaking records but in a bad way. It appears that up until this moment, hackers have managed to compromise as much as $718 million worth of crypto. Uptober turned out to be Hacktober.

Charts

This week we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.