Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a significant price increase, climbing above the $69,000 mark, following the release of U.S. consumer inflation data that came in cooler than expected. This price rally led to a substantial spike in short liquidations, which reached over $28 million in the past 24 hours.

According to Coinglass data, the surge in Bitcoin’s price resulted in a total of $48 million in liquidated Bitcoin positions. The broader cryptocurrency market experienced over $198 million in liquidations during the same period.

The catalyst for this rally was the U.S. inflation data released on Wednesday, which indicated that the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 3.3% year-over-year in May. This figure was slightly lower than the 3.4% that economists had anticipated, as reported by FactSet.

Later today, the Federal Reserve’s rate-setting meeting is expected to yield no surprises, with CME Group projecting a 99.4% probability that the Fed will maintain the current interest rate of 5.25% to 5.50%. Despite this, a Reuters poll of economists suggested that the Fed might reduce rates twice this year, potentially starting in September.

Nansen Principal Research Analyst Aurelie Barthere noted that after the CPI print, it is anticipated that the Fed will revise growth forecasts downwards and adjust rate cuts to better align with market expectations. "We think that Powell will sound as dovish as he can be considering the data. In the press conference, his tone has diverged from the rest of the Committee's stance lately," Barthere told The Block.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at approximately $69,300, marking a more than 3% increase over the past 24 hours, according to The Block’s price page. Meanwhile, Ether (ETH) has also seen gains, rising over 2% to $3,635 during the same period.