Bitcoin price nears 3-week high as trader says sub-7% CPI may see $19K

Bitcoin (BTC) traded nearer $17,000 on Jan. 7 after the end of the yearโ€™s first trading week delivered a spike higher.

BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

All eyes on CPI

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it briefly passed the $17,000 mark the day prior.

The pair had seen flash volatility on the back of fresh economic data from the United States, this nonetheless fading to leave the key level โ€œunflippedโ€ as resistance.

Nonetheless, the brief uptick delivered Bitcoinโ€™s highest price point since Dec. 20, 2022.

Reacting, market participants continued to look to next weekโ€™s Consumer Price Index (CPI) print as a key potential catalyst for risk assets.

โ€œUnemployment will rally in the coming months. Yields will fall of a cliff if CPI is low,โ€ Michaรซl van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, wrote in part of a summary tweet on Jan. 6.

โ€œRelief rally is close.โ€

โ€œFinally looks like BTC is ready to break out of the $16K – $17K base range itโ€™s been stuck in the past several weeks. Initiate the squeeze,โ€ hopeful trader Kaleo continued.

Should the CPI data show inflation decreasing quicker than expected, meanwhile, it could provide fuel for a trip to multi-month highs near $19,000, futures trader Satoshi Flipper added.

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Satoshi Flipper/ Twitter

Data reveals extent of on-chain losses

Zooming out, fellow trader and analyst Rekt Capital joined the growing consensus over the current narrow trading range on BTC/USD forming the next macro bottom zone.

Related:ย $16.8K Bitcoin now trades further below this key trendline than ever

โ€œThe current BTC price action will likely figure as an important cluster in the formation of the Bear Market bottom Accumulation Range,โ€ he determined.

In a further demonstration of the pain already being endured by hodlers, on-chain analytics firm Glassnode showed that Bitcoin has seen its second-largest realized cap drawdown.

Realized cap describes the aggregate price at which the BTC supply last moved, and its decrease reflects realized losses from selling.

“The 2022-23 Bitcoin Bear Market has seen the Realized cap drawdown by -18.8%, the second largest in history, and eclipsed only by the pico-bottom of the 2011 bear,” Checkmate, Glassnode’s lead on-chain analyst, commented alongside a chart.ย 

“Investors have weathered a total of $88 Billion in Net Realized losses.”

Bitcoin realized cap drawdown annotated chart. Source: Checkmate/ Twitter

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authorsโ€™ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.