On Monday, it over an hour to mine a BTC block, which left thousands of transactions unconfirmed. Based on chain data submitted by various block explorers, the gap between the latest BTC blocks that Foundry USA and Luxor minted was around 85 minutes.

Data from Mempool states that more than 13,000 transactions were left incomplete before the recent block was finally minted.

Bitcoin Has Tough Week Trying To Ensure Block Confirmations

Despite being the top-raking cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin seems to have its flaws. This recent occurrence isn’t the only such event.

Over the course of last week, the reigning cryptocurrency experienced some difficulty to ensure that block confirmations continued every 10 minutes.

As mining difficulty reaches 35.6 trillion, it’s becoming even costlier to mine BTC tokens. This adds further pressure on a crypto mining industry that’s crippled under high energy prices and the worst crypto bear market on record.

But according to the founder of the Lightning Network, Tadge Dryja, over an hour-long intervals between two blocks can occur once every month or so, without accounting for any changes in mining difficulty.

Bitcoin May Not See Notable Recovery after Release of CPI

After key inflation data from the consumer price index was released last Thursday, prices of various assets, including cryptocurrencies took a hit.

As a knee-jerk reaction to the higher-than-expected inflation rate, Bitcoin’s value dropped to $18,140, a four-month low.

Soon enough, it went back to $19,500, and the same goes for the US stocks. In fact, Bitcoin’s price almost tested $20,000.

But despite the enthusiastic reaction from crypto enthusiasts on Twitter, industry experts aren’t sure whether this quick recovery has momentum.

Analysts say that there haven’t been noticeable changes in the world’s economic condition to hint at a major recovery.

As of yet, the geopolitical and macroeconomic outlook is not in favor of a crypto boom. Moreover, it doesn’t seem like the Federal Reserve will be easing inflation rates any time soon.

Various markets expect that the Fed’s interest rate will peak around 5 percent further. That’s a major increase from the 4.65 percent predicted before the report was released.

Sudden Bounce in Crypto and Stock Prices could be Fleeting

As of now, it’s likely that the Federal Reserve will further increase inflation rates. Hence, it’s likely that the quick recovery of prices is just a fleeting response.

This year, they increased the rates by around 300 basis points. Even so, core inflation skyrocketed to a 40-year high last month.

In the aftermath of this liquidity tightening, risky assets like cryptocurrencies have suffered greatly. The Federal Reserve will raise interest rates higher than the earlier prediction. All signs point to a bear market rally, so traders should brace themselves accordingly.