Bitcoin Price Edges Closer to Record High. Why Inflation Data Can Fuel More Gains. — Barrons.com

By George GloverBitcoin was edging higher on Wednesday, with a cooler-than-expected inflation print likely to help the cryptocurrency to cling onto its recent gains.The world's largest token by market valuation was up 1.3% to $110,020 over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinDesk. It's now about 2% off the all-time high of just under $112,000 it hit last month.Bitcoin has tended to move in line with the stock market this year, so the May consumer price index reading could help drive up prices. Inflation for last month came in at 2.4%, slightly below what economists polled by FactSet were expecting. That could give the Federal Reserve more scope to cut interest rates sometime later this year, which would likely boost demand for riskier assets like cryptos.Other tokens were also rising on Wednesday. Ethereum gained 3.8%, XRP climbed 2.4%, and Solana added 6.4%, according to data from the crypto exchange Kraken.Write to George Glover at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.