Bitcoin, Solana, XRP Tumble Ahead Of CPI – And Retail Traders Aren’t Feeling Bullish

Zcash remained the exception among cryptocurrency majors, with the token still higher on the week despite Friday’s pullback.

• Markets are pricing roughly a 70% chance of a Fed rate hike at the September 16 FOMC meeting.
• Bitcoin has struggled to regain $80,000 after failing to sustain recent rebounds.
• Ethereum held up better than several major tokens, while XRP and Solana extended their weekly declines.

Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and Ripple’s (XRP) token fell Friday morning, extending a rough week for major cryptocurrencies even as U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open ahead of the August CPI report.

Bitcoin’s price fell 1.5% over the past 24 hours, while Zcash (ZEC) led losses among major tokens, dropping 11%. XRP’s price dropped around 4.2% followed by Solana, which fell around 2.4%. Ethereum (ETH) edged just 0.5% lower in the last 24 hours. 

On Stocktwits, only Zcash saw retail sentiment trending in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone over the past day. Sentiment around Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple trended in ‘bearish’ territory, while sentiment around Solana remained in the ‘extremely bearish’ zone.

Equities, meanwhile, were set for a higher open. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA) and the Nasdaq-100 tracking Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) moved 0.5% higher in pre-market trade. 

The uptick was helped by a strong earnings beat from Oracle (ORCL) and easing of oil prices. Friday’s gains come after the major indexes suffered four consecutive losing sessions.

Bitcoin Remains Below $80,000

Bitcoin has fallen around 5.5% over the past week to around $76,815, unable to clear the $80,000 mark that's capped its rallies since late August. Meanwhile, Solana’s price dropped 5.2% over the same stretch, while XRP was the week's worst performer among majors, down 9% to $1.32. 

Ethereum’s price was also on track to finish the week lower, down 2.7%  Zcash, despite its tumble in the last 24 hours, was the only crypto major poised to the end the week in the green with a gain of 8.6%.

Fed Rate Hike Bets Keep Pressure On Crypto

Traders currently see roughly a 70% probability that the Federal Reserve raises interest rates at its September 16 meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Friday's CPI report is the last major inflation reading before next week's Fed decision, making the data particularly important for rate-sensitive assets.

According to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, a cooler reading could quickly reduce expectations for a September rate hike and give markets room to recover. He also believes that even if the Fed hikes rates, the markets are likely to rally since most of the bad news is already priced in. 

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