Recently checked the market, Bitcoin has experienced quite a bit of volatility over the past two weeks. It was consolidating around $74,000, but due to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and inflation data exceeding expectations, it briefly dropped to around $71,000. Now it has rebounded, trading near $72,970, with a 24-hour increase of 1.44%.

The main factors are twofold: one is geopolitical risks pushing up oil prices from $92 to nearly $96, directly impacting inflation expectations. The other is that the US Producer Price Index for February rose 0.7% month-over-month, far exceeding the expected 0.3%, with core PPI also increasing by 0.5%, surpassing expectations. These inflation data have made the prospects for rate cuts more complicated, causing the market to panic and sell off, with gold also dropping 2.5%.

Other cryptocurrencies have also adjusted, with Ethereum up 2.67% in 24 hours, Solana up 1.88%, Ripple up 0.74%, as the market continues to digest this inflation shock. The Federal Reserve announced its policy decision that day, maintaining interest rates, with the chairman’s statement becoming the focus, as the market waits for signals on how they view the balance between inflation and economic growth.

By the way, the WLFI token from World Liberty Financial has recently taken a heavy hit, dropping 7.45% in 24 hours to a new low since launch. This project previously caused controversy due to its lending strategy on a DeFi platform, where it used its own tokens as collateral to borrow stablecoins, then drained the liquidity pool. Critics pointed out that this increased cycle risk, as the falling WLFI price weakened borrowing capacity, with collateral concentrated in depreciating tokens, raising risks for other users on the platform. Under this inflation shock, such high-risk projects are under the most pressure.