Bitcoin surrendered its 3.5% advance just before the CPI report, underscoring how quickly crypto reacts to macro data. The slide erased the week’s climb and shifted attention squarely to today’s inflation number. With leverage in play across corporate treasuries and derivatives desks, the same headline now drives positioning.
The climb turned into a slide during the quiet hours before the data release, a pattern consistent with traders locking in quick profits or cutting risk after borrowing to buy. The CPI matters because a higher or lower print reshapes expectations for interest rates and system liquidity, and those expectations influence bids for coins like BTC.
Ahead of major releases, funds that trade futures or options often resize bets or hedge anew. No fresh numbers on futures open interest, funding rates, or ETF flows have appeared, so there is no public data to pin the selling on a specific group; the tape shows only that someone sold.
In plain words, funding is the fee paid every few hours between buyers and sellers of perpetual futures so that the contract price stays close to spot.
What to watch around the release
Leverage washouts can follow a surprise print, as sharp moves wipe out traders who used too much borrowed money. Derivatives can reset if implied volatility jumps or drops and the gap between spot and futures shifts, pushing market makers to adjust hedges. Treasury desks at firms holding BTC on balance sheet might shift exposure if the inflation trend changes.
The release is the line in the sand: watch funding rates, open interest, and ETF flows afterward to gauge whether any bounce has staying power. Until further numbers arrive, the simplest explanation is that the market trimmed size ahead of the print.
