Bitcoin price heads above $23.5K after highest EU inflation in history

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) shifted higher on Aug. 18 as the latest data confirmed the European Union’s highest ever inflation.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD passing $23,500 at the time of writing, having preserved $23,000 as support overnight.

Concerns over a deeper risk asset drawdown had become widespread over the week, with Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) notably unable to crack long-term resistance levels.

With bulls seemingly on the back foot, the mood among analysts was naturally wary.

“BTC did break down from this huge rising channel/wedge everyone seems to be watching,” Daan Crypto Trades wrote in part of his latest Twitter update.

Near-term support meanwhile came in the form of whale buy-ins at $22,800 and up, on-chain monitoring resource Whalemap argued.

Now just below Bitcoin’s 200-week moving average, the $22,800 zone should be the line in the sand to watch in the event of a market downturn.

“Back to square one,” the Whalemap team summarized alongside a chart showing the extent of hodled whale coins by price point.

Macro triggers were clearly inflation-skewed on the day, with the EU’s 9.8% July print headlining.

Related: Bitcoin miners hodl 27% less BTC after 3 months of major selling

The figure for July marked the bloc’s highest ever inflation reading, up from 9.6% year-on-year in June. For context, in July 2021, inflation was 2.5%.

“The lowest annual rates were registered in France, Malta (both 6.8%) and Finland (8.0%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (23.2%), Latvia (21.3%) and Lithuania (20.9%),” a report from Eurostat stated.

In an interview with Reuters on Aug. 18, Isabel Schnabel, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), could not say with confidence