Bitcoin jumps past $50K as US CPI data shows highest inflation in nearly 40 years

Bitcoin (BTC) surged over $1,000 in seconds on Dec. 10 as United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) data showed inflation in November was worse than anticipated. 

November CPI conforms to expectations

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD running to $50,132 on Bitstamp as the data became public Friday.

An hour before the Wall Street open, the pair had already hit its highest level in over 24 hours.

CPI had been hotly awaited by both crypto and traditional finance analysts alike, with opinions favoring at least a 6.7% year-on-year increase for November, and even over 7%. In the event, the numbers broadly conformed to conservative guesses, reaching 6.8%.

CPI below expectationsBullishall markes popping

The results nonetheless mean that inflation on CPI is at its highest in almost 40 years.

Still rangebound

Bitcoin's short-term successes did not last long, with BTC/USD back under $50,000 at the time of writing.

Related: Bitcoin could hit $100K, gold $2K in 2022 thanks to 'deflationary forces' — Bloomberg analyst

The largest cryptocurrency remained trapped in a range with no visible upside bias, this requiring a break above $53,600 to change, analysts previously argued. 

Yes, there's been a decent amount of volatility for #BTC recentlyIn fact, $BTC has been threatening to lose this red support throughout the week but failing to confirm a breakdownBTC has returned above red yet againStill holding here until further notice#Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/739hdAooiI

Altcoins were unmoved by the CPI event with Ether (ETH) still down 1.3% over the past 24 hours.

Out of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, only Terra (LUNA) managed to eke out a small gain on the day.