above the $26,000 mark
for the first time since June last year. The main factor that pushed BTC up over 17% to an intra-day high of $26,500 was the release of the February CPI report that confirmed the predictions of analysts — 0.4% compared to 0.5% in January. Currently, BTC is changing hands at $24,667, according to CoinMarketCap data.
This indicated a slight fall in the inflation rate, namely from 6.4% down to 6.0% year-over-year compared to January.Prior to that, the digital gold's price went up on the news of the closure of one of the largest U.S. banks — Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank following it. Both banks are to be bailed out by the U.S. government. Another bank shut down before these two, Silvergate.
Experts and economists are of the opinion that the current crisis in the banking sphere is likely to drive the Federal Reserve to cut its rate hikes. Now, during the FOMC meeting in March, the Fed is expected to raise the rate by 25 basis points. Recently, some financial experts on Crypto Twitter have compared the current crisis in the banking sphere to a similar one in Cyprus back in 2013. At that time, this was the major driver that fueled the large growth of Bitcoin, thus pushing the flagship crypto into the mainstream.