Bitcoin was hovering around $77,000 on Friday morning in Europe, with traders turning their attention to the next potential market jolt: the U.S. inflation report.
The move puts Bitcoin down more than 1% over the past 24 hours and roughly 5% for the week, according to CoinDesk data. After a week dominated by shifting expectations for interest rates, even a familiar economic release is suddenly commanding the crypto market’s full attention.
The selling wasn’t limited to Bitcoin. Zcash was the day’s biggest decliner among the names highlighted, dropping nearly 10%, although it remains about 8% higher over seven days after surging beyond $1,000 last week.
Hyperliquid fell 4%, while XRP slipped almost 3%. Dogecoin, Solana and Bitcoin each lost between 1% and 2%. Ether, BNB and Tron were close to unchanged.
Looking at the full week, Tron stands out as the only major holding with a gain, up about 3%. XRP is down 8%, Hyperliquid has dropped 9%, and Solana has lost around 5%.
Bitcoin is taking its cues from the Fed again
The bigger story sits outside crypto charts. August’s U.S. consumer price index is due Friday, and traders are watching it for clues about what the Federal Reserve could do at next week’s meeting.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, the probability of a rate hike next week had climbed to 69%. That’s up from 59% a week ago and 48% a month earlier, although the figure eased from 72% on Thursday.
A quarter-point increase would lift the Fed’s target range to 3.75%–4.00%.
For Bitcoin, that matters because markets have spent the week reacting to changes in rate expectations. A hotter-than-expected inflation reading could push the probability of a hike even closer to certainty, while also lifting expectations for short-term borrowing costs.
That pressure is showing up across markets. Brent crude slipped below $104 a barrel, but it is still nearly 8% higher since Monday. The International Energy Agency has warned that prices at those levels begin to weigh on consumption.
Government bonds are adding another layer of tension. Global yields are sitting at multi-year highs, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield nearing 5%.
In that setup, Bitcoin is behaving less like an isolated internet asset and more like another instrument caught in the tug-of-war over rates, inflation and liquidity.
The CPI number will help determine whether that pressure intensifies or starts to fade. For now, Bitcoin is trading as though every decimal point in the inflation data could matter.