Bitcoin hovers around $30K, Ether holds above $1.9K ahead of Ethereum Shanghai upgrade

Bitcoin (BTC) hung precariously around $30,000 on Wednesday afternoon after the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed inflation cooling slightly, but not as much as economists had expected.

The biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently at $30,030, up a few fractions of a percentage point over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk’s data. BTC’s price touched as high as $30,548 earlier Wednesday after the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ widely watched inflation reading showed CPI rose 0.1% in March, slower than economists’ 0.2% forecast for the month and then February’s 0.4% reading. On an annual basis, the CPI was higher by 5%, down from 6% in February and against expectations of 5.2%.

BTC’s profit-taking is “intensifying” after the report, Edward Moya, senior market analyst at foreign exchange Oanda, wrote in a Wednesday note.

“It looks like the momentum rally for bitcoin may be over for now,” Moya wrote. “Inflation hedging and or a break in the correlation from equities may subside for a while.” He added that BTC looks set to consolidate as “it will clearly need a robust catalyst to keep the rally going.”

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, recently traded at $1,914, up 0.3% from Tuesday’s time. Validators and market watchers are watching Ethereum’s Shanghai (or Shapella) upgrade, which is scheduled to go live at 18:27 ET (22:27 UTC).

Crypto analysts and traders are divided on the event’s market impact, with some expecting ETH selling pressure to send the token’s price down, while others expect little significant price impact.

“While there is plenty of short-term concern about what happens when stake ETH is locked up, long-term the ability to enter and exit at will opens the doors for new entrants to the market who may have been wary of locking up their money for a indefinite period of time,” Jim Myers, founder and chief technology officer at blockchain analytics platform Flipside Crypto, told CoinDesk in an email.

BTC and ETH have risen by more than 6% and 4% respectively in the last seven days. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which measures the overall performance of the crypto market, was down 0.2% for the day, but rose 2.2% over the past seven days.

Stock markets were mixed on Wednesday afternoon. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) recently traded up 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. The technology-heavy Nasdaq was almost flat.