x402 Protocol Token PING Market Cap Surges Above $15 Million Briefly, with a 456% 24-hour Increase

**Reuters Survey: US Jan CPI Forecast at 0.3% MoM, 2.5% YoY** A Reuters poll of economists shows the median expectation for U.S. January CPI is 0.3% month-on-month growth—on par with December 2023. Forecasts range from 0.1% to 0.4%. Year-over-year, the CPI is seen rising 2.5%, a slight dip from December’s 2.7%. Economists cite the exclusion of last year’s higher inflation readings as the main driver. When releasing the January CPI report, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will unveil recalculated 2025 seasonal adjustment factors to reflect 2025 price changes. This could revise seasonally adjusted CPI indexes for the past five years. Economists note the BLS model update may not fix the CPI’s “January effect”—a trend where January data consistently tops expectations. (IG)

**Feb. 13 – Tactical Trade Alert: JPMorgan Urges Selling 2-Year Treasuries Amid Fed Chair Appointment Loom** With the Federal Reserve Chair appointment looming, JPMorgan Chase advised selling 2-year U.S. Treasury notes as a tactical trade. The bank argues even if Kevin Warsh is tapped to lead the Fed, **solid economic fundamentals will limit room for significant rate cuts**. JPMorgan projects January core CPI will rise 0.39% month-over-month—*topping the market’s consensus forecast of 0.31%*—reflecting early-year pricing adjustments and lingering inflation pressures. Strategists note strong growth and sticky inflation will **cap short-term rate downside**, making a sharp drop from current levels unlikely. Current market pricing calls for the Fed to deliver a 25-basis-point cut as early as July, with another cut expected by year-end. The 2-year Treasury yield edged up to 3.47% ahead of the CPI report. **Dissenting View:** Greenlight Capital founder David Einhorn is betting r

February 13th — Per Coinglass data, two critical liquidation thresholds exist for Bitcoin (BTC): - If BTC falls below $64,000, cumulative long position liquidations across major centralized exchanges (CEXs) will hit $898 million. - Conversely, a break above $69,000 would trigger $1.417 billion in cumulative short position liquidations on leading CEXs. **BlockBeats Note**: The liquidation chart does not display the exact number or value of contracts to be liquidated. Its bars instead show the **intensity** of each liquidation cluster relative to neighboring clusters — i.e., how impactful a price level will be. Higher bars signal a stronger reaction (driven by liquidity cascades) if BTC reaches that level.

February 13 – Per data from Coinbob Popular Address Monitor, crypto KOL “CBB” (X:@Cbb0fe) and the “OTC Trader” whale address 0x894 were counterparties in U.S. stock perpetual contracts on the Hyperliquid chain. Both hold large positions (in the $20 million range) in storage and AI sector assets including Micron (MU), NVIDIA, Google (GOOGL), and SanDisk (SNDK) — but in completely opposite directions. Details on the two whales’ current key holdings: - **Crypto KOL CBB**: A senior trader and on-chain player, currently holds short positions in the four major tech stocks totaling ~$25 million. Amid MU’s recent continuous rally, this address has been reducing its MU short position (partially taking profits on short-term gains), with a weekly profit of roughly $660,000. - **“OTC Trader” Whale**: Formerly the largest on-chain gold bull, later shifted to heavy bets on Nasdaq and copper. Currently holds long positions in the four tech stocks totaling ~$22 million (no recent position adjus

On February 13, OnchainLens monitoring data shows that whale address 0x982 has deposited $4.8 million in USDC into HyperLiquid and opened a 20x-leveraged short position on ETH. The address is currently still actively adding to this position. Six days ago, the same address deposited $2.4 million in USDC, opening a 10x-leveraged short position on HYPE and a 20x-leveraged long position on BTC.