Bitcoin is back above $61,000, but the road there was ugly. The recovery, which played out during Asian trading hours on June 6, followed one of the sharper single-day liquidation events of the year, a cascade that wiped out approximately $1.6 billion in leveraged positions across the crypto market in just 24 hours.
The proximate cause was a U.S. jobs report that nobody on Wall Street wanted to see. The economy added 172,000 jobs in June, against an expectation of 130,000. In English: the labor market was too strong, which means the Federal Reserve has less reason to cut interest rates anytime soon, which means risk assets everywhere took a hit.
When Wall Street sneezes, crypto catches a cold
The Nasdaq 100 dropped approximately 5% on June 5, the day the jobs data dropped. Bitcoin followed the broader selloff, briefly touching $59,227 before buyers stepped back in.
Of the $1.6 billion wiped out, $534 million was tied specifically to Bitcoin long positions. Ether contributed another $423 million in liquidations. The overwhelming majority of those positions were longs, meaning traders who had bet on prices continuing higher got caught leaning the wrong way.
