Short sellers got crushed Thursday as Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP pushed to weekly highs and $600M in crypto liquidations piled up.
Bitcoin reclaimed the $62,000 band in the morning — touching $62,078 after earlier plummeting below $58,000 to a 21‑month low earlier this week. At about $61,808, BTC was roughly 3% higher on the day and up about 4% for the week.
Ethereum and other large-cap coins were the day's strongest movers. ETH and Solana climbed nearly 5% intraday to about $1,701 and $81, respectively, with Solana leading the top 10 over the last seven days (+22%). XRP also rose, trading around $1.09, up more than 3% on the day.
The rebound coincided with a surge in liquidations: CoinGlass data shows roughly $602 million wiped out in the past 24 hours. Ethereum narrowly eclipsed Bitcoin as the single biggest contributor to that total — $187 million in ETH liquidations versus $184 million for BTC — and short positions accounted for about $400 million of the carnage. In short: leveraged short sellers took the brunt of the pain.
Macro signals likely helped fuel the bounce. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s comments Wednesday — declining to say whether the Fed plans rate hikes later this year — left traders weighing policy options. CME’s FedWatch tool showed roughly even odds for a September hold or hike, and about a 64% chance of some Fed tightening by October.
Fresh U.S. labor data also added to the market’s frame: employers reported just 57,000 jobs added in June versus an expected 115,000 (May was revised to +129,000). Equities reacted mixedly: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were lower, while the Dow stayed in the green, per Yahoo Finance.
Crypto-related stocks mirrored the sector’s rally. MicroStrategy (MSTR) jumped nearly 7% to about $100 — rebounding from nearly $80 last week — Coinbase (COIN) gained roughly 3.35% to $165, and Circle (CRCL) rose almost 5% to about $65.
Bottom line: a combination of macro uncertainty, softer-than-expected jobs data and fading immediate rate-hike certainty helped lift risk assets — and left many leveraged shorts badly burned as Bitcoin, Ethereum and several altcoins posted weekly gains.
Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news
