Bitcoin rises toward $79,000 as markets digest inflation before Fed decision

Bitcoin traded near $79,000 after initially falling on U.S. inflation data. The Consumer Price Index rose 3.4% year over year. CPI rose 0.4% month over month. Both readings matched consensus. Core CPI rose 0.3% month over month. Analysts expected a 0.2% increase. The annual core rate cooled to 2.4% from 2.5% in July. The report arrived five days before the Federal Reserve's September 15-16 meeting. Chair Kevin Warsh's committee will vote at that meeting. CME FedWatch put the odds of a 25-basis-point hike at roughly 69%. Polymarket priced the same outcome at 62%. Myriad priced it at 61%. Total crypto market capitalization climbed back toward $2.7 trillion. Ethereum rose 7.48% to $2,611. Solana gained 4.53% and moved above $100. Zcash gained 23.09% over the past week. Zcash also gained 4.71% over 24 hours. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose to 73. The Altcoin Season Index stood at 38. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of roughly $330.5 million. Open interest across crypto futures rose 1.52% to $429.99 billion. Twenty-four-hour trading volume rose 2.27% to $877.11 billion. Liquidations totaled $897.09 million. Long-position liquidations totaled $493.85 million. Short-position liquidations totaled $403.24 million. Bitcoin opened at $76,529 and fell toward a daily low of $76,040 after the CPI release. Bitcoin later reached $79,837. Bitcoin traded near $79,007 with a 3.24% daily gain. Bitcoin's 50-day exponential moving average crossed above its 200-day average. The resulting golden-cross setup was not technically confirmed because the averages had not developed a significant gap. Bitcoin's Relative Strength Index stood at 59.7. The article described that level as below the 70 reading associated with overbought conditions. A Fibonacci retracement zone based on the summer low of $68,858 and the late-August high of $82,281 ranged from $73,986 to $75,569. The late-August high of $82,281 remained the level identified for a further rally before the Fed's rate decision on Wednesday at 2pm ET.