Bitcoin has established a new support zone that could face its first major test with Thursday’s U.S. inflation release.

That level is near $59,000, which has recently acted as a floor, preventing deeper declines in the past few sessions.

Support, in market terms, refers to a price area where selling pressure tends to ease as buyers step in. Still, traders generally look for repeated defenses before confirming a level as meaningful.

On Wednesday, bitcoin fell toward $59,000 amid accelerating selling before rebounding to roughly $61,000 overnight. At the time of writing, BTC is trading around $60,800, according to CoinDesk data. A similar move occurred earlier this month on June 5, when a drop to the same zone was followed by a rally toward $67,000.

These repeated rebounds have solidified $59,000 as a critical line of defense — one that bulls must hold to avoid a deeper correction.

Attention now shifts to the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) report due Thursday at 8:30 ET. Headline PCE is expected to rise 4.1% year-over-year in May, the highest since April 2023 and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, according to FactSet.

Core PCE, which excludes food and energy and is the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, is projected to increase between 3.3% and 3.4%, marking its highest reading since October 2023.

A hotter-than-expected reading would strengthen the case that inflation remains persistent, potentially reinforcing expectations for further Fed tightening. That could boost the U.S. dollar — already trading near multi-month highs — and weigh on risk assets such as equities and cryptocurrencies.

In that scenario, $59,000 — rather than $60,000 — becomes the key level to watch.

Conversely, a softer reading could ease concerns about additional rate hikes, slow the dollar’s rise, and give bitcoin bulls an opportunity to extend the rebound from this support zone.