Immy Dorse 
Well, it was quite the week for crypto, wasn’t it? After what felt like ages of just drifting along, things finally started moving. And not just a little. We saw some real action across the board, with Bitcoin leading the charge and altcoins, well, they just went for it.
What’s Fueling This Sudden Jump?
Honestly, it all seems to come back to one thing: interest rates. Or more specifically, the growing chatter that the U.S. might finally cut them. That hope got a serious boost from some recent economic data. The August jobs report on the 5th got people talking, but the real trigger came later.
The Producer Price Index on Wednesday was the big one. It actually fell by 0.1% for the month, which nobody really saw coming. The expectation was for a small increase. When you dig into it, the details are perhaps more telling. It looks like companies are starting to absorb higher costs themselves instead of just passing every single penny on to shoppers. That’s a sign that the whole inflation situation might be cooling a bit faster than the experts thought.
Then the Consumer Price Index landed on Thursday and basically met expectations. It’s still going up, but the fact that it wasn’t worse seemed to be enough for everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. That’s when Bitcoin clawed its way back up to that $115,000 mark for the first time in a couple of weeks.
Ethereum and Solana Join the Party
It wasn’t just Bitcoin, though. Ethereum had a pretty slow start to the week, to be frank. But then money started trickling back into its spot ETFs. The flow turned positive on Tuesday, and then after that CPI data, things really took off. ETH shot up over 8% in just 48 hours. On Friday alone, the ETFs saw over $400 million come in, which completely erased a two-week outflow streak.
And Solana? It finally broke through that stubborn $210 resistance level it had been stuck at for months. The rally lasted for eight straight days. The momentum was clear in both the spot and futures markets. In fact, futures open interest blew past $8.1 billion even before the big inflation reports hit. This run has given the whole Solana ecosystem a jolt, too, with its total value locked climbing above $13 billion.
All Eyes Are on the Fed Now
So after a strong weekend, things have calmed down a little. Prices are pulling back slightly, consolidating. Bitcoin is hovering around that $115k level again, and other major coins like ETH and SOL are seeing similar minor corrections.
But everyone’s waiting for the main event this week: the Fed’s meeting. A quarter-point cut on Wednesday seems almost certain at this point. I think the real story will be what Fed Chair Powell says afterward. If his tone hints at more cuts down the line, that could really give the market another push. If he’s more cautious, well, that might put a damper on the mood.
We’ll also get U.S. retail sales data on Tuesday. If those numbers come in weak, it could spark some worries about the economy slowing down too much, which usually isn’t great for riskier assets. It’s going to be a week where every word from the Fed is picked apart. Let’s see how it goes.