Bitcoin reclaimed $65,000 on August 7 as a much weaker-than-expected US jobs report pushed traders to price out the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September. The token opened the day near $64,260 and climbed to roughly $65,140 by mid-morning, while Ethereum held above $1,900. The broader crypto market added an estimated $70 billion in total capitalization over the course of the week, even as $157 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over the prior 24 hours.
The catalyst was July's nonfarm payrolls report, which showed the US economy lost 23,000 jobs against consensus expectations for an 80,000 gain — a miss of more than 100,000 jobs from forecast. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% from an expected 4.2%, and June's already-soft payrolls figure was revised further downward. ADP's private payrolls data had already flagged the slowdown a day earlier, with private employers adding just 44,000 jobs in July versus a revised 95,000 in June.
Why a weak jobs report lifted crypto
Weak labor data typically strengthens the case for the Federal Reserve to cut, rather than raise, interest rates, since a cooling job market reduces inflationary pressure from wage growth. Lower rate expectations tend to boost risk assets broadly, including Bitcoin, by making borrowing cheaper and reducing the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets. Gold and silver moved in the same direction on the news, with gold futures pushing above $4,400 an ounce to their highest level since June — a sign that the rally wasn't isolated to crypto but part of a broader repricing of risk across markets reacting to the same data.
A fragile recovery
Even with Bitcoin back above the closely watched $65,000 level, the reaction underscores how sensitive crypto markets remain to traditional macro data releases. Bitcoin had been consolidating below that threshold in the days leading into the report, with analysts flagging $62,000 as a risk zone if the jobs data had come in stronger than expected and reinforced a hawkish Fed stance. Instead, the miss gave bulls the catalyst they needed, though the $157 million in liquidations over the prior day is a reminder that leveraged positioning across the market remains a source of volatility even during a broadly positive news cycle.
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