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Bitcoin (BTC) carried through threats of new local lows July 12 as the White House warned of “highly elevated” inflation.

White House warns ahead of "decisive day"

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $19,500 prior to the Wall Street open, down over 4% on the day.

Having failed to hold $20,300 support, the pair appeared to react badly to comments on the inflation outlook from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Markets were already primed for higher than expected figures for June from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which made new forty-year highs in May.

“So on Wednesday, we will have new CPI inflation data, and we expect the headline number, which includes gas and food, to be highly elevated, mainly because gas prices were so elevated in June,” she told reporters at a press briefing July 11.

Bitcoin (BTC) carried through threats of new local lows July 12 as the White House warned of “highly elevated” inflation.

White House warns ahead of "decisive day"

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD approaching $19,500 prior to the Wall Street open, down over 4% on the day.

Having failed to hold $20,300 support, the pair appeared to react badly to comments on the inflation outlook from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Markets were already primed for higher than expected figures for June from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which made new forty-year highs in May.

“So on Wednesday, we will have new CPI inflation data, and we expect the headline number, which includes gas and food, to be highly elevated, mainly because gas prices were so elevated in June,” she told reporters at a press briefing July 11.

In a fresh episode of the longstanding battle between the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the country's Ministry of Finance, representatives of the former have criticized the latter’s idea of supporting the stablecoins, which some private investors have sought to launch in the country. 

According to local media, an unnamed representative of the central bank dismissed talk of Russia-based stablecoins, started last week by the Ministry of Finance’s director of financial policy department Ivan Chebeskov.

Back then, Chebeskov voiced his ministry’s support for creating stablecoins tied to assets like “the ruble, gold, oil or grain”. He called it “the right path for developing new technology” and urged private companies to try this kind of financial tool if they find it necessary.

The CBR speaker said that private stablecoins “are characterized by higher risks,” because the pool of underlying assets doesn’t belong to the issuer. They also stated that there is no guarantee of redemption at par by the issuer and the price of stablecoin isn’t really stable.

Related: Russian bank Sber to complete its first digital currency deal

From a historical perspective, the loss in value realized across the cryptocurrency market over the past several months has been one for the record books and the total cryptocurrency market cap has declined from $3 trillion to $991 million. 

June was especially painful for investors after the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell nearly 40% to mark one of its worst calendar months on record according to a recent report from cryptocurrency research firm Delphi Digital.

In light of the strong market correction, a number of BTC price and on-chain metrics have begun to reach levels similar to those seen during previous market bottoms, but this doesn’t mean traders should expect a turnaround anytime soon because history shows that periods of weakness can drag on for months on end.

Macro headwinds weigh on BTC price

One of the most significant factors weighing on cryptocurrencies and other risk assets has been the strength of the United States dollar.

Combined with rising inflation and falling economic indicators, DXY strength is a signal that an economic slowdown is all but inevitable, with forecasts now predicting a recession in early to mid-2023.

The upcoming Ethereum (ETH) Merge is one of the most talked about developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap undergoes the difficult transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). 

One protocol whose fate is largely tied to the successful completion of the Merge is Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking platform that allows users to tap into the value of their assets for use in decentralized finance and earn yield from staking.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since LDO hit a low of $0.42 on June 30, its price has climbed 107.6% to hit a daily high of $0.874 on July 9, but at the time of writing the altcoin has pulled back to $0.65.

Three reasons for the sharp turnaround for LDO include the successful Merge on the Sepolia testnet, the continued increase in Ether deposits on the platform and the slow recovery of staked Ether (stETH) price in comparison to Ether's spot price.

Sepolia testnet merge

Migrating to proof-of-stake has been a challenging process, but it came one step closer to completion on July 6 with the successful Merge of the PoW and PoS chains on Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet.

The upcoming Ethereum (ETH) Merge is one of the most talked about developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap undergoes the difficult transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). 

One protocol whose fate is largely tied to the successful completion of the Merge is Lido DAO (LDO), a liquid staking platform that allows users to tap into the value of their assets for use in decentralized finance and earn yield from staking.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since LDO hit a low of $0.42 on June 30, its price has climbed 107.6% to hit a daily high of $0.874 on July 9, but at the time of writing the altcoin has pulled back to $0.65.

Three reasons for the sharp turnaround for LDO include the successful Merge on the Sepolia testnet, the continued increase in Ether deposits on the platform and the slow recovery of staked Ether (stETH) price in comparison to Ether's spot price.

Sepolia testnet merge

Migrating to proof-of-stake has been a challenging process, but it came one step closer to completion on July 6 with the successful Merge of the PoW and PoS chains on Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet.