Bitcoin 60,000 Floor Cracks After Explosive Jobs Report

The Bitcoin 60,000 floor cracked on Friday for the first time since October 2024, hours after a U.S. jobs report that blew past expectations. The economy added 172,000 positions in May against 85,000 forecast, crushing hopes for near term rate cuts. BTC bottomed near $60,000 before clawing back to $61,000 in Saturday Asian trading, after a wave of $1.6 billion in liquidations within 24 hours.

Key Takeaways

• Bitcoin 60,000 cracked for the first time since October 2024 after a jobs print that doubled expectations
• Swaps now fully price a Fed rate hike by year end, a full reversal from the cuts pencilled in under new chair Kevin Warsh
• $1.6 billion liquidated in 24 hours, Nasdaq 100 down 5%, its steepest drop since April 2025

The Jobs Report Kills the Rate Cut Trade

Friday’s NFP release landed like a cold shower on risk assets. 172,000 jobs created in May against 85,000 expected by economists, a beat of more than 100%. With inflation still running above the Fed’s target and a labor market refusing to soften, the June rate cut narrative has evaporated.

Money markets had already priced a hold for this month’s meeting. But the jobs surprise reshapes the entire second half. Swaps now fully price a rate hike by year end, a sharp reversal from the cuts expected under newly confirmed Fed chair Kevin Warsh. The Bitcoin 60,000 floor never stood a chance against that repricing.

For a Bitcoin already on the back foot, the verdict is brutal. The promise of fresh liquidity through monetary easing stays out of reach. The “free money” thesis that lifted the market in Q1 has dissolved, replaced by a higher for longer rate path that weighs on every long duration asset.

The Nasdaq 100 absorbed a 5% drop, its worst session since April 2025. The S&P 500 shed 2.6% on the day. This time, crypto is not crashing alone, but BTC pays the steepest relative price, down 21% over the past four weeks.

Below $60,000, the Major Psychological Floor Gives Way

Slicing through Bitcoin 60,000 marks a technical inflection point. The level had served as implicit support since October 2024, propped up by institutional flows and the ETF launch halo. Its break ends a seven month upside leg that had taken BTC into uncharted territory earlier this spring.

The numbers speak for themselves. BTC is down more than 14% on the week and 21% over four weeks. Ether collapses even more violently, off 21.6% in seven days at $1,575. Solana drops 23.7% to $63, while XRP, Dogecoin and BNB shed between 13% and 20%. The purge spares no segment, hitting layer 1s, majors and memecoins alike.

Derivatives amplified the move. $1.6 billion in positions were liquidated in the 24 hours following the NFP print. That wave stacks on top of the $3 billion already wiped out in the previous two sessions. BTC futures open interest collapsed 8.5% to $111.4 billion, a clear sign that leveraged longs are unwinding fast.

The market has seen this script before. As we covered in our analysis of the crypto market meltdown at $65,708, each break of technical support triggers automated cascades on overexposed long positions. The difference this time is that the broken floor is the one that had held for eight straight months.

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The AI Narrative Keeps Draining Crypto Liquidity

Capital rotation into AI linked equities remains the dominant structural driver. According to K33 Research analysts, the opportunity cost of holding BTC is judged too high while AI names print fresh highs week after week. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 chained record closes while BTC failed to reclaim its 200 day moving average, creating a divergence not seen since 2021.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs have logged 13 straight sessions of net outflows, draining $4.4 billion since mid May. Assets under management dropped from $104.29 billion to $80.40 billion over the period. The institutional retreat extends beyond BTC. ETH, SOL and XRP products joined the redemption wave after weeks of relative resilience.

Strategy’s late May disclosure of selling 32 BTC, covered in our piece on Strategy selling Bitcoin below 70,000, reinforced the bearish read. The transaction may be financially immaterial, but it broke a dogma held since 2022 and delivered a powerful psychological signal.

Prediction markets confirm the gloom. They now imply a 66% probability of BTC falling below $55,000 before year end, and a coin flip chance of a sub $50,000 print. Saturday’s bounce back to $61,000 stays fragile as long as ETF flows do not reverse and the Fed does not pivot.

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