Fourth of July fireworks came early: $BTC pops past $63K and shorts go boom 🎆

Bitcoin climbed above $63,000 in U.S. morning hours Saturday, up 1.4% over 24 hours and 3.6% on the week according to CoinDesk data, reaching its highest level in two weeks and fully reversing the losses that closed out June. The token later extended its move in the early hours of July 6, spiking to $63,900 on CoinGecko and approaching the $64,000 mark. Trading remained thin on Saturday with U.S. markets closed for the Independence Day holiday, a liquidity backdrop that tends to amplify moves in both directions. The rally marked a sharp reversal from the $58,293 low Bitcoin touched on July 1.

The advance followed Thursday's U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls report, which showed the economy added just 57,000 jobs in June, well below forecasts. Softer employment data lowered expectations of a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike and reduced Treasury yields, weakening the dollar and lowering the opportunity cost of holding Bitcoin. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh had earlier in the week said inflation risks have come down, adding to the friendlier macro backdrop. Bitcoin entered the third quarter at 21-month lows and has now recovered the ground lost in June's final slide.

Short sellers bore the brunt of the move. Data from the derivatives market showed traders lost over $450 million in short positions across the market as Bitcoin broke through $62,000, with the squeeze carrying the price through successive layers of bearish positioning. Spot Bitcoin ETFs also reversed course, snapping a 10-day run of redemptions, though the funds are still working through June's record outflows of $4.5 billion.

XRP led major tokens with a 5.3% gain to $1.18, up nearly 10% on the week, a move that lifted it past the USDC stablecoin into fifth place by market value at about $73 billion. Ether added 3.2% on the day to about $1,793, up 11.5% over seven days, while solana rose near $82.50 with a 13.2% weekly gain and dogecoin climbed 2.6%. Solana gained nearly 19% on the week, the strongest performance among majors according to separate data, while onchain metrics showed XRP holders at their deepest average losses on record, the kind of washed-out positioning traders often buy against.

Whether the momentum holds now turns on the upcoming U.S. inflation print and on whether buying continues once U.S. trading desks return from the holiday, with institutional flows still working through June's record ETF outflows and forced short-covering historically producing fast price moves rather than sustained demand.