$BTC Closes the Gap: July 4 Holiday Squeeze Liquidates $450M in Shorts, ETFs Flip Green

Bitcoin traded around $63,207 on Monday, steady after a holiday-weekend rally that pushed the token to highs above $63,000 on Saturday and neared $64,000 on Sunday, fully recovering the ground lost in late June. The rebound from a 21-month low of $57,293 touched on July 1 lifted bitcoin 5.5% over seven days, per CoinDesk data. Trading was thin with U.S. markets closed for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, conditions that amplified price swings as short sellers were forced to cover.

The squeeze was severe. More than $450 million in short positions across the derivatives market were liquidated as bitcoin broke through $62,000, with forced buybacks extending the move into the $63,000-$64,000 range. Ether (ETH) rose roughly 4% on Sunday and about 12% over the week to roughly $1,777-$1,793, while Solana (SOL) added nearly 19% across the seven days to around $80.77-$82.50, the strongest weekly gain among majors. XRP climbed nearly 10% on the week to $1.14-$1.18, briefly overtaking the USDC stablecoin to rank fifth by market value at about $73 billion. Dogecoin (DOGE) rose about 2.6% on the day and roughly 5.5% over seven days, while BNB gained around 5.5% on the week. Hyperliquid's HYPE led the majors with a 14.6% weekly gain, and the CMC20 index of the top 20 assets rose roughly 9%.

Two catalysts drove the reversal. Thursday's U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls report showed just 57,000 jobs added in June, well below expectations of roughly 113,000, easing rate-hike fears and lowering Treasury yields. Earlier in the week, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks have come down. Spot bitcoin ETFs flipped to a net inflow of $223.5 million on July 2, snapping a 10-day run of redemptions, while ETH ETFs logged consecutive green days with about $15 million on July 1 and $29 million on July 2, the first signs of a reversal after June's record $4.5 billion in outflows.

The rally held even as risk sentiment wobbled elsewhere. A rebound in semiconductor and technology shares lost momentum, with South Korea's Kospi falling 1.4% on declines in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix and an MSCI gauge of Asian chipmakers slipping. Brent crude fell 0.6% to about $71.70 a barrel, while the dollar strengthened against all major peers, a headwind for crypto that has tracked the currency through the prior quarter.

Strategy's STRC jumped 21% to $87.87 to end the week after hitting lows near $70, and MSTR stock rebounded 21% to reclaim $100, though spot bitcoin ETFs continue to recover from their worst month on record. Market focus now turns to the upcoming U.S. inflation print and whether the majors can hold above $63,000 as U.S. trading returns to full volume.