Headline CPI came in at 0.2% month-over-month with an annual rate of 3.4%, matching consensus forecasts and reinforcing the narrative that inflation is slowly, grudgingly, coming to heel. The numbers behind the calmCore CPI, which strips out the chaos of food and energy prices, rose between 0.1% and 0.2% on the month. That puts the annual core rate near 2.5%, a number that would have sounded aspirational just a couple of years ago. June’s CPI report came in at negative 0.4% month-over-month, well below the anticipated 3.8% annual rate, clocking in at 3.5% instead. If inflation data starts surprising to the upside again, the same institutional flows that are lifting crypto today could reverse with equal conviction.