Major cryptocurrencies slipped into the red but Axie Infinity (CRYPTO: AXS) continued to defy gravity on Tuesday night as the global cryptocurrency market cap plunged 2.75% to $1.33 trillion.
What Happened: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) traded 2.03% lower at $32,466.73 over 24 hours and 4.71% for the week.
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) was down 6.17% to $1,909.80 over 24 hours. Over a seven-day trailing period, ETH has fallen 17.28%.
Meme-oriented Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) traded 6% lower at $0.195 over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency was down 16.29% on a seven-day basis.
DOGE was down 3.79% against BTC over 24 hours but gained 0.15% against ETH in the same period.
AXS continues to be on a tear and rose 9.93% to $20.53 at press time. The gaming and non-fungible token or NFT related project’s coin shot up 95.08% over the last seven days.
See Also: How To Buy Axie Infinity (AXS)
Against BTC and ETH, AXS is up 12.09% and 16.67% respectively over the last 24 hours.
Joining AXS on its way up were Crypto.com (CRYPTO: CRO), Internet Computer (CRYPTO: ICP) and Harmony (CRYPTO: ONE), all of which were in the green at press time.
Over 24 hours — CRO spiked 2.84% to $0.13, ICP was up 2.81% to $38.49 and Harmony traded 2.56% higher at $0.081.
Why It Matters: On Tuesday, the U.S. Consumer Price Index inflation numbers were released by the Labor Department. CPI inflation rose 5.4% in June, the highest such gain in 13 years.
Bitcoin is traditionally thought to be a hedge against inflation, but its recent performance was termed “interesting” by Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders on Twitter.
Interesting that as CPI #inflation has climbed from +1.4% y/y in January to 5.4% in June, #Bitcoin has essentially been cut in half
[Past performance is no guarantee of future results] pic.twitter.com/QIXeb2m5Vv— Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) July 13, 2021
The rising inflation may not be enough of a catalyst to shoot Bitcoin out of its rangebound movement as per Edward Moya of the brokerage firm Oanda, Coindesk reported.
“This inflation shock might not be a strong enough catalyst to break bitcoin’s recent trading range.”
Meanwhile, Bitcoin dominance has been resurging of late and is currently at near 45% levels after falling below 40% in May. Arcane Research reportedly said this is due to the apex cryptocurrency’s perception of safety.
“In a downward trending crypto market, bitcoin is the safest bet,” wrote the cryptocurrency research and analysis firm, CoinDesk reported.