After a sharp sell-off late on Monday, Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index data has resulted in a broad-based recovery in crypto prices.
The Bitcoin price saw a modest increase to $117,500 after momentarily falling below $116,000 earlier on the day. However, altcoins are faring much better. The Ethereum price is back above $3,000, up by nearly 3% on the day.
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) is leading the gains among the top 100 crypto assets on CoinMarketCap, posting an intraday surge of nearly 20%. Other top performers include Solana meme coins Bonk and Dogwifhat, Layer-1 coins Sei and Sui, and AI cryptos Bittensor and Injective.
Among the low caps, Useless Coin, TOKEN6900 and Bitcoin Hyper are in high demand.
June Inflation Data Mostly In Line With Market Expectations, With Soft Core CPI Print
Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index data for June came in largely in line with expectations, though the headline numbers were slightly mixed.
Annual CPI rose 2.7%, just above the 2.6% forecast, while the monthly figure met expectations at 0.3%.
The Core CPI print, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, came in slightly below expectations. Core CPI rose 0.2% month-over-month versus the expected 0.3%, and increased 2.9% year-over-year compared to the 3.0% forecast.
Just In: June US CPI annual inflation rises 2.7%, above expectations of 2.6%.
Core CPI inflation increased 2.9% Y/Y, compared to forecasts for a gain of 3.0%. pic.twitter.com/JrTyg462a0
— Jesse Cohen (@JesseCohenInv) July 15, 2025
The slight overshoot in annual CPI suggests that President Donald Trump’s tariff policy may be adding modest inflationary pressure to the economy. However, the softer core CPI readings indicate that the Federal Reserve still has room to cut interest rates by 50 basis points this year.
For instance, the CME FedWatch is still indicating two rate cuts in 2025, one in September and another in December.
Unsurprisingly, risk assets are bouncing back. The S&P 500 has hit the 6300 mark for the first time in its history. Analysts believe that Bitcoin will follow suit.
Crypto Prices Bounce Back, Meme Coins Among The Top Gainers
The crypto market saw a strong sell-off earlier this week as traders went risk-off heading into the CPI data release.
Prominent analyst Ali Martinez notes that when crypto prices decline ahead of CPI releases, they tend to rebound afterwards; a pattern that has played out once again today.
While Bitcoin is seeing a modest rally, altcoins are showing significant bullish strength. Ethereum is now up nearly 3% on the day, and is eyeing the $3100 mark.
Meme coins are once again among the top performers. Pudgy Penguins is up by nearly 20% over the past 24 hours, now trading above the $0.032 resistance level. A daily close above it would trigger a strong bullish continuation.
Meanwhile, Solana meme coin Bonk has surprised investors with its bullish strength. A daily close above the $0.02356 woud make it one of the best meme coins to invest in right now.
AI coins Bittensor and Injective, as well as Layer-1 coins Sei and Sui, are among the top gainers today, signalling strong latent demand. Once Bitcoin and Ethereum start their rally again, these will be among the best crypto investments.
Low Caps And Presale Tokens Surprise Investors With Bullish Strength
This crypto bull cycle is marked by outsized rallies in low caps. For instance, the Useless Coin is up by nearly 20% since the start of this week, now trading at a market capitalization of $360 million.
The meme coin captures its ethos in its name, which has resulted in strong community support. Many anticipate that it will hit a billion-dollar valuation soon.
Similarly, TOKEN6900 (T6900) is an unapologetically utility-less meme coin, powered by the same delusional humour as SPX6900.
It is also a low-cap meme coin, with its presale having a hard cap of just $5 million. Smart money investors are already taking note, which has resulted in the T6900 ICO raising $540k in just days.
If TOKEN6900 matches even 50% of USELESS’s gains, late presale buyers could still see 30x returns, and early entrants are aiming for a full 100x.
Similarly, Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER) has raised nearly $3 million in its ICO in a few short weeks.
It is a new Bitcoin Layer-2 project, aiming to improve the speed, scalability and programmability in the BTC ecosystem.
Layer-2 coins are excellent beta bets on their respective L1 coins, which explains the strong early demand for HYPER, with many calling it the next 10x crypto.
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