Following the release of the latest U.S. inflation data, risk assets overall strengthened, with Ethereum rising alongside them. According to Coinpedia, citing market data, ETH was trading at $2,575.39, up 5.7% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, gold, and U.S. stocks also rose in tandem, indicating that capital is being repriced around inflation and interest rate expectations.
Core CPI declines
The main factor driving improved market sentiment was the continued decline in core CPI. Core CPI, excluding food and energy, fell to 2.4%, the lowest level in over five years. The report noted that price pressures for housing, services, and everyday goods have eased, leading markets to believe that underlying inflation in the U.S. continues to slow.
Under this backdrop, some capital is betting that the Federal Reserve has room to hold rates steady—or even shift toward rate cuts in the future. As a result, risk assets have generally rebounded, with Ethereum also benefiting from this renewed risk appetite.
Rising oil prices push up the overall CPI.
Meanwhile, the overall CPI remained at 3.4%. The report suggests that this reading was primarily driven by rising oil prices, which in turn were linked to supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran. In other words, the market tends to view this portion of inflation as stemming from energy factors rather than a broad-based resurgence in demand.
This distinction affects asset pricing. If inflationary pressures stem primarily from energy supply rather than broad-based increases in household and corporate demand, markets are typically more willing to continue holding riskier assets.
The services reading came in higher than expected.
However, the interest rate market has not fully accepted the assessment that inflation has significantly cooled. The report noted that month-over-month “super core” services inflation rose to 0.3%, above the market expectation of 0.2%. This metric, which excludes energy and housing, better reflects underlying demand pressures.
As a result, market expectations for further Fed rate hikes rose as high as 85%. This indicates that, despite Ethereum and other risk assets rising in the short term, there remains significant divergence within the market regarding the future direction of interest rates.
Overall, Ethereum’s recent rise was not driven by a single crypto-specific factor, but rather by a coordinated rebound in risk assets following the release of macroeconomic data. Moving forward, the market will continue to monitor U.S. services inflation and energy price movements to determine whether this rebound can be sustained.