Bitcoin was struggling to break the $70,000 mark early Thursday, as surging oil prices overshadowed a lower-than-expected CPI inflation report.

The price of the world's biggest cryptocurrency was down 0.2% over the past 24 hours to $69,502, according to CoinDesk data. Popular alt-coin XRP also dipped, by 0.4%. Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency, rose by 0.6%.

Digital assets struggled to find direction as efforts Wednesday by the International Energy Agency to unleash the largest oil reserves in history failed to lower crude prices. Front-month Brent crude contracts rallied 5.3% early Thursday, while WTI futures gained 4.9%.

"With no concrete signs of de-escalation [in Iran] yet, that's keeping oil prices elevated, and raising the risk of a broader stagflationary shock," said Deutsche Bank strategist Henry Allen.

Indeed, rising energy prices will make the Fed more cautious about cutting interest rates, even as February's CPI inflation level came in lower than economists' expectations at 2.4%. Under normal circumstances, Wednesday's print would have been good for risk-on assets such as cryptocurrencies. But these aren't normal times.

Write to Alex Kozul-Wright at alexander.kozul-wright@barrons.com

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source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/DJN_DN20260312002586:0/