Crypto markets were volatile as investors continued to digest new inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s dot plot.

Bitcoin bulls attempted to push higher in early trading but encountered resistance at $68,484, and bearish forces took over after midday, with BTC falling to an intraday low of $66,206. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $66,844, down 2.5% over the 24-hour period.

Altcoins took a hit, with the top 200 tokens by market cap seeing more losses than gains.

Ionet (IO), which had the largest gain in the previous day, suffered the biggest drop on Thursday, falling 19.1%, followed by CurveDAO Token (CRV) with a drop of 19%, and Arweave (AR) with a drop of 13.4%. Among the few rising tokens, Aelf (ELF) led the gains with a 7% increase, followed by SKALE (SKL) with a 6.5% increase, and Toncoin (TON) with a 4.1% increase.

The current overall market value of cryptocurrencies is $2.42 trillion, with Bitcoin accounting for 54.2% of the market.

As for U.S. stocks, as of the close of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially closed down 0.17%, the S&P 500 rose 0.2%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.3%. The latter two set new closing highs for four consecutive trading days. Nvidia (NVDA.O) rose 3.5%, Apple (AAPL.O) rose 0.5%, and Tesla (TSLA.O) rose 2.9%.

Thursday's May producer price index showed prices fell 0.2% month-on-month after rising 0.5% in April, suggesting some easing in inflation, giving investors more reason to expect a rate cut in September. The CME Fed Watch tool currently shows a 68.5% chance of a rate cut, up from 65% yesterday.

The market needs a new narrative to stimulate demand

In BTC spot, from a liquidity perspective, bid depth is between $66,000 and $65,000, but the market needs to find trading demand to support $66,000. There is quite a bit of ask depth around $70,000 and above, and the market may need some new narratives to stimulate demand.

Looking at the BTC perpetual contract, the Perp order book is quite active, with a large number of buys at low liquidity, which is usually a combination of real demand and a large number of shorts looking to close their positions.

Comparing BTC Binance Perp and Bybit Perp, the perpetual contract market shows a clear hedging pattern, and shorts are currently favored. However, the good news is that the funding rate is low and the spot premium lasts longer, which means that the bubble is leaving the market.

With the U.S. stock market hitting new all-time highs, it is expected that Bitcoin may soon follow suit. But we should be prepared for short-term resistance around $70,000, with greater resistance at $72,000.

$100,000 Bitcoin is only a matter of time

Although Bitcoin’s price action has been trading sideways since late February, it is only a matter of time before the uptrend resumes, with most predicting that Bitcoin will eventually break through $100,000 at some point in this bull cycle.

Theoretically, by the end of this year, the Bitcoin price should be close to $100,000. If we look at another year, we might reach the trendline of $140,000 by 2025. The cycle top target is rising.

Sideways price action is actually a good thing.

The fact that Bitcoin is having a hard time breaking out is good for the entire cycle. Bitcoin has never broken out so early after a halving. If a breakout does occur, the cycle will accelerate to the point where the bull run will be shorter than usual.

This continued consolidation allows the price to resynchronize with the historical halving cycles so that we can achieve a normal bull run. Bitcoin has been consolidating in this re-accumulation range for three months. History suggests this could continue for another three months. Therefore, it would not be surprising if the price turned down from the range high resistance.

If you believe that Bitcoin can always break through $100,000, then the current pullback is nothing to be afraid of. In the long run, any decline is an opportunity.

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