Bitcoin Price Inches Towards Record High. Why Inflation Data Is Key to Crypto Rally. — Barrons.com

By George GloverBitcoin was edging higher on Wednesday, ahead of a key inflation print that could help determine whether the cryptocurrency will be able to cling onto its recent gains.The world's largest token by market valuation was up 0.4% to $109,500 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, due out at 8.30 a.m. Eastern time, could drive up or drag down prices. Economists are expecting inflation to climb to 2.5%, up from 2.3% in April, according to a FactSet poll. A bigger flare-up than that could make it even tougher for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates at all this year, which would likely sap demand for riskier assets like cryptos.Other tokens were also rising ahead of the inflation report. Ethereum rose 4.3%, XRP climbed 0.6%, and Solana added 5.2%, 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.