[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | U.S. March Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Inflation Hits 3.5%, Oil Prices Surge on Middle East Conflict

U.S. core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% month over month in March, matching market expectations of 0.3%, according to Odaily.

At the same time, the preliminary annualized core PCE price index for the first quarter came in at 4.3%, above the expected 4.1%. The previous reading was 2.7%.

Core PCE is a key inflation indicator closely watched by the U.S. Federal Reserve. The latest data suggests that the pace of inflation cooling may be slower than the market had expected.

U.S. March PCE inflation rose to 3.5%, marking the fastest increase since May 2023. Surging energy prices, including gasoline, were seen as the main driver of the increase.

According to Odaily, data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on the 30th showed that the March PCE price index increased 3.5% from a year earlier. On a monthly basis, it rose 0.7%, above February’s 0.4%.

The increase is interpreted as being driven by disruptions in oil trade and soaring energy prices caused by the Middle East conflict. Since PCE is a key gauge used by the Federal Reserve to assess inflation trends, the market may grow increasingly concerned that the timing of interest rate cuts will be pushed back further.

Brent crude oil prices have surpassed $120 per barrel.

Watcher.Guru reported via X on the 30th that Brent crude had moved above $120. The sharp rise in oil prices is being interpreted as a factor increasing inflationary pressure and weakening investor sentiment across risk assets.

According to U.S. media reports, President Trump is scheduled to receive a briefing on Thursday from U.S. Central Command Commander Brad Cooper regarding potential military action plans against Iran.

According to the report, the options under review include short, high-intensity airstrikes targeting Iranian infrastructure, control over parts of the Strait of Hormuz, and special forces operations to secure Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

The briefing is being interpreted as part of efforts to review options for increasing military pressure amid continued deadlock in negotiations with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical route for global oil shipments, so any possibility of control or disruption could heighten volatility in international oil prices and risk asset markets.

The report added that Commander Cooper had presented similar plans to President Trump on February 26.

Analysis suggests that the U.S. 30-year Treasury yield rising to 5% could weigh on risk assets such as Bitcoin.

On the 30th, PANews, citing CoinDesk, reported that rising long-term Treasury yields and the Federal Reserve’s hawkish stance are pressuring crypto market liquidity and investor sentiment.

Diana Pires, chief business officer at sFOX, said that as long as Treasury yields remain elevated and the Fed maintains its tightening stance, capital is more likely to favor yield and safety over risk assets. She added that this environment could continue to pressure crypto through weaker liquidity and market momentum.

Pires also explained that inflation has not yet clearly returned to the Fed’s target level, and the Fed is not signaling near-term rate cuts, which could lead investors to prioritize stable returns over volatility-driven opportunities.

Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus, noted that rising long-term Treasury yields and a stronger dollar have tightened financial conditions in the past and have previously weighed on crypto valuations.

Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21Shares, said that while the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady was expected, the fact that three officials opposed the direction of rate cuts weakened expectations for policy easing. He viewed this as a classic hawkish signal and said Bitcoin is reacting sensitively to such a shift.

ING analysts also said that this dissent could be interpreted as a warning sign regarding the future path of monetary policy. While markets had previously expected rate cuts this year, the latest development suggests the Fed is not readily embracing those expectations internally.

Tether Treasury minted an additional 1 billion USDT on the Tron network.

According to PANews on the 30th, Whale Alert monitoring showed that at 15:45 that day, Tether Treasury issued 1 billion new USDT on Tron.

An increase in USDT issuance is typically interpreted as a positive factor for expectations of expanded dollar liquidity across exchanges and on-chain markets. However, it has not been confirmed whether this issuance immediately flowed into the market or led to purchases of specific assets.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a proposal to raise position and exercise limits for options on the Nasdaq ISE-listed iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) from 250,000 contracts to 1 million contracts.

According to PANews on the 30th, the SEC said IBIT’s liquidity and market size are sufficient, and that the expanded limit would not increase the risk of market manipulation.

The SEC explained that the 1 million contract limit represents about 7.474% of total shares outstanding, and even if all contracts were exercised, it would account for only 0.278% of Bitcoin’s total circulating supply.

This standard is in line with option limits applied to major ETFs such as EEM, FXI, and EFA.

Nasdaq ISE had previously submitted a proposed rule change seeking to increase the trading limits for IBIT options.

According to PANews, citing SoSoValue data, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of $138 million on April 29 (U.S. Eastern Time). This marked the third consecutive trading day of net outflows for spot Bitcoin ETFs.

The product with the largest net inflow that day was MSBT, which attracted $10.8149 million. MSBT’s cumulative net inflow reached $164 million.

By contrast, the largest net outflow came from BlackRock’s IBIT. IBIT saw $54.7251 million withdrawn, and the report said its cumulative net inflow currently stands at $23.3928 million.

As of the time of reporting, the total net asset value of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs was $9.92667 billion. The ETF net asset ratio relative to Bitcoin’s total market capitalization was 6.55%, and cumulative net inflows totaled $5.8073 billion.

Recent fund flows in spot Bitcoin ETFs have been closely watched as a gauge of institutional demand. These outflows may be interpreted as a near-term negative factor for investor sentiment.

BlackRock was recently seen transferring Bitcoin and Ethereum from its spot ETFs to Coinbase Prime over the past two hours.

According to Odaily, Arkham monitoring data showed that BlackRock transferred 725.36 BTC, worth about $55.12 million, from its spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT to Coinbase Prime.

It also transferred a total of 16,609 ETH, worth about $37.57 million, from its spot Ethereum ETF ETHA to Coinbase Prime.

Coinbase Prime provides trading and custody services for institutional investors, so large asset transfers are often closely watched by the market for potential selling or rebalancing activity.

Wasabi Protocol suffered an attack resulting in losses of about $2.9 million.

On the 30th, PANews, citing CertiK Alert, reported that the attacker obtained privileged control over the Wasabi deployer wallet, suggesting that the deployer wallet may have been compromised. The stolen funds are currently distributed across three wallet addresses.

Source: panewslab.com

Publication date: 2026-04-30T14:30:15.000Z