The Fear & Greed Index dropped a few more points further into Neutral – basically showing investors aren’t leaning clearly bullish or bearish – while Bitcoin keeps moving sideways.
However, Bitfinex analysts don’t see this as weakness. They think it’s more like the market catching its breath after earlier gains.
To break out, Bitcoin’s gonna need a clear catalyst. And the two potential candidates are:
👉 A softer stance from the Fed (we’ll see if Jerome Powell drops hints at Jackson Hole on Friday, 10 AM ET);
👉 Or renewed ETF inflows (right now, the opposite is happening: Bitcoin ETFs had $135.8M in outflows over the last two trading days).
Ethereum, on the other hand, has been flexing on us: it nearly reached its all-time high last week.
This made Bitcoin’s dominance fall to 58%, since Ethereum’s run dragged some investors into riskier altcoins as well.
But those rallies are fragile. Without consistent institutional money, most altcoins struggle to maintain momentum, so BTC and ETH still hold most of the serious capital.
Oh, and the latest US macro updates aren’t giving markets much relief.
July’s CPI headline looked softer, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see core inflation rising at its fastest pace in six months.
Producer prices (PPI) increased even more. That’s how much it costs companies to make stuff – and if it rises faster than what they are able to charge customers, their profits get smaller.
For investors, that usually translates into weaker corporate earnings, lower stock prices, and less appetite for risk overall (not good for crypto).
On top of that, while Donald Trump’s been vocal about wanting the Fed to cut rates faster, this inflation data makes that a tougher case to push.
So for now, we’re stuck in a market that’s torn between being cautious and chasing ETH’s momentum.
