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The recent retreat of Bitcoin (BTC$77,282.55) away from the $80,000 threshold has caused traders to scale back their optimistic stances, while incoming U.S. consumer price inflation metrics arriving today and tomorrow are projected to indicate a resurgence in pricing pressures.
“Call skew continues to soften as traders shed bullish exposure following early-week weakness,” the artificial intelligence-driven trading analytics platform OrderX stated on X.
Options skew tracks the preference for call options, representing bullish market bets, relative to put options, which serve as downside price protection. A positive reading indicates that speculators are aggressively pursuing upward momentum using calls.
According to OrderX, this upside bias is diminishing. This shift transpires as the spot price of bitcoin retraces downward to $78,000 from recent peaks exceeding $81,000. Such a downward correction occurs amid climbing crude oil costs, elevated treasury yields, and mounting expectations that the Federal Reserve will increase borrowing costs.
Combine those factors with revived macroeconomic price worries, and the trading environment appears increasingly difficult for optimistic investors.
The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI), slated for publication at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, is anticipated to reflect that producer inflation climbed 0.4% month over month during August, following a flat reading in July. That movement would elevate the annualized metric to 5.3% compared to the prior 4.7%.
Such a substantial jump could further reinforce anticipations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike during the following week, potentially strengthening the greenback and placing additional downward pressure on bitcoin values.
Current data from the CME FedWatch tool highlights a greater than 60% probability of a rate increase. Friday’s Consumer Price Index publication is similarly projected to reveal a resurgence in inflation. Remain vigilant!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
What’s trending
- Crypto wins regardless of Clarity Act vote, Coinbase’s Armstrong says (CoinDesk): Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong noted that the digital asset sector is positioned to secure regulatory transparency irrespective of the results from the Senate’s September 15 legislative vote on the Clarity Act.
- Indian agri warehouse giant is putting $2 billion in grain-backed loans onchain (CoinDesk): Arya.ag, which operates as India’s premier agricultural storage enterprise, is leveraging distributed ledger technology to tokenize grain stockpiles, warehouse certificates, and loan statuses, providing creditors with a dependable mechanism to authenticate the physical harvests securing farming credit facilities.
- Nervy markets await ECB rate hike, U.S. inflation data (Reuters): Global markets were bracing themselves for the European Central Bank’s second monetary tightening move of the year alongside vital U.S. price statistics following the resurgence of petroleum prices to $100 per barrel, sparking fresh volatility across worldwide debt markets.
- Treasury yields move higher as investors await key wholesale inflation data (CNBC): With the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield hovering at its peak levels since November 2023, market participants are eyeing crucial domestic wholesale and consumer inflation indicators, scheduled for Thursday and Friday respectively, to gain visibility on inflation trends and the central bank’s upcoming monetary policy determination.
Today’s signal
The visual representation displays the hourly price fluctuations of bitcoin mapped in candlestick formations across a four-week span.
Over recent sessions, prices have fluctuated back and forth inside a band between $76,000 and $82,000. This sideways channel behavior resembles a standard bullish consolidation phase typically observed following sharp upward surges, comparable to the movement witnessed through August when prices transitioned from $64,000 up to $80,000.
A decisive structural push past $82,000 would establish a brand new bullish breakout, pointing toward the continuation of the upward trend. Conversely, a breakdown beneath the $76,000 support level would instantly transform the short-term market bias into a bearish outlook.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/daybook-us/2026/09/10/bitcoin-traders-dial-down-bullish-plays-ahead-of-u-s-inflation-data.
