Inflation blinked first. June CPI data came in soft enough to push Fed rate hike odds from 36% down to just 14%, and markets did exactly what you’d expect: they ran toward anything with risk attached.
The dollar index slipped below 101, and that single move did a lot of the heavy lifting. A weaker dollar is basically a green light for risk assets, crypto included, and traders rotated accordingly.
Ethereum leads the charge
The most notable development in crypto wasn’t Bitcoin. It was Ethereum, which outpaced BTC on the move and climbed back toward the $2,000 level for the first time since late June.
ETH posted a 24-hour gain of 2.8%, roughly double Bitcoin’s 1.7% move over the same period. That kind of relative outperformance tends to get attention, because ETH lagging BTC has been the dominant narrative for most of this year.
