Live updates: bitcoin tumbles to $60,000 as blowout jobs data, Zcash bug keeps pressure on crypto

It's been a brutal week for crypto traders and not just because prices nosedived.

More than $5.3 billion in leveraged long positions, or bullish bets on higher prices, have been liquidated across crypto derivatives markets since Monday, according to CoinGlass data.

Friday alone accounted for roughly $1.4 billion of the damage as bitcoin (BTC) plunged below $60,000 and altcoins suffered even steeper losses.

The scale of the washout rivals the late January-early February selloff, when bitcoin tumbled from around $90,000 to $60,000 in a matter of a week.

Large liquidation cascades often mark periods of capitulation, when leverage is flushed out of the system and weaker hands are forced to exit.

Whether this week's wipeout proves to be a durable reset or simply another step lower remains to be seen, but dip-buyers started to step in below $60,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) is plumbing new multi-year lows in U.S. afternoon trading, extending its weekly loss to nearly 20% and threatening to fall below $59,000.

It's the worst of both worlds for bitcoin, which tumbled in value in recent months even amid an historic rally in almost all other risk assets that sent U.S. stock indices to new records on what seemed like a daily basis. Uncorrelated.

Now, with stocks in plunge mode — the Nasdaq down nearly 4% on Friday — bitcoin finds itself perfectly correlated.

"Short term, Bitcoin feels like swallowing broken glass," wrote Jeff Swanson Friday.

"The chart goes up. It goes down. It makes grown men cry into their Robinhood accounts and CNBC anchors smugly declare the funeral, for the eleventh time."

"Here's what uncomfortable people don't understand: the discomfort is the yield. Every paper-handed panic seller is handing their future to someone with a longer time horizon and a colder storage device."

In yet another example of the massive capital draw of AI, Meta (META) is considering raising tens of billions of dollars in equity, according to a report in the FT.

The move would follow Google's (GOOG) record-breaking $84 billion capital raise earlier this week, and comes ahead of mega-IPOs from SpaceX and Anthropic (and possibly OpenAI).

Already lower on the day, Meta shares fell even further on the news, now down nearly 7%. The Nasdaq extended a 3% loss to 3.5%. Bitcoin's very modest bounce has been short-circuited, the price quickly moving back towards $60,000.

The conventional wisdom says money flowing into AI is among the top reasons for crypto's struggles in recent months. It's getting harder each day to argue against that.

Things are moving very quickly, but bitcoin's (BTC) fall below $60,000 for the first time since October 2024 has triggered a wave of dip-buying and short-covering, sending the price quickly back to $61,200.

Bitcoin is still down about 4% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH), which earlier this week had seen a small bit of relative outperformance versus bitcoin, is back to underperforming. It's lower by 10% to $1,596. At 0.2614, the ETHBTC ratio is down more than 4% this week and at a year-to-date low.

U.S. stocks, meanwhile, are adding to losses, the Nasdaq down 3% and the S&P 500 down 1.8%.

Bitcoin (BTC) for the briefest of moments took out the $60,000 level on the downside. It's since bounced back to just above that line.

Adding to an already long list of headwinds, crypto on Friday now has to deal with a stock market that's no longer continuously rising. Perky valuations are colliding with an unexpectedly strong May jobs report to send the Nasdaq lower by 2.4% and the S&P 500 down 1.4%.

According to CME FedWatch, market participants have priced in more than a 70% chance of one or more U.S. rate hikes this year.

Retail is showing its first meaningful signs of accumulation in bitcoin for months, according to Glassnode's Accumulation Trend Score (ATS) by wallet cohort. The metric measures whether different groups of holders are accumulating or distributing coins, with a score closer to 1 indicating accumulation and closer to 0 indicating distribution.

Notably, retail investors holding less than 1 BTC are accumulating for the first time since December 2025, when bitcoin was trading around $90,000. Today, with bitcoin at $60,000, smaller holders appear to be stepping back into the market.

The shift is not limited to retail. Distribution pressure has eased across most wallet cohorts, with signs of accumulation beginning to emerge more broadly. On an aggregate basis, the ATS currently sits at 0.75 out of 1, suggesting a relatively strong accumulation trend is developing across the network after months of persistent selling.

"With a great Jobs Report, like just announced, stocks should go up, not down," said President Trump minutes ago on Truth Social.

"That’s the way it was for 200 years. Growth does not mean inflation! How else can a Country attain GREATNESS???"

The Nasdaq has taken a break from a string of record highs, tumbling 2.2% on Friday following this morning's far stronger-than-expected May U.S. jobs report. It's the well-worn "good news is bad" pattern as markets price in a certainty of imminent Federal Reserve rate hikes.

Precious metals extended their selloff on Friday after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report boosted the dollar and increased expectations for near-term Federal Reserve rate hikes. The U.S. economy added 172,000 jobs in May, well above forecasts for 85,000, while unemployment held steady at 4.3%.

Gold fell 2.5% to $4,366 an ounce, leaving it flat for the year after surrendering earlier gains and sitting 22% below its January highs. Silver dropped 7% to $69 an ounce, down 5% year-to-date and 44% below its January peak. Meanwhile, the DXY dollar index climbed to 99.8, its highest level in two months, adding further pressure on precious metals.

CNBC host Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund manager whose poorly timed market calls have earned him a reputation among investors, reignited debate around Strategy (MSTR) after posting on X that Michael Saylor had "murdered Bitcoin."

Cramer's comments came after Strategy sold 32 BTC ($2.5 million), prompting concerns that the company could eventually become a larger seller of its bitcoin holdings. Responding to those fears, Strive CEO Matt Cole said critics were always going to view the sale as the "tip of the iceberg.""First it's 32 BTC, next it's going to be 3,200 BTC."

Cole argued that Strategy's goal should be maximizing returns for common shareholders, with bitcoin serving as a hurdle rate rather than the sole objective.

"Ultimately the goal is you want to maximize the total returns for your common equity shareholders."

Strategy is exploring ways to increase its bitcoin-per-share, including selling certain amounts of bitcoin to fund STRC dividends and repurchasing MSTR stock, to increase value for shareholders.

What may be the most important security in bitcoin (other than bitcoin itself) has plunged further in Friday's selloff.

Strategy's high-yielding preferred security STRC is down another 2.6% to $92.96, putting it more than 7% below $100 par value.

Marketed by Michael Saylor and team — often in the most cringiest fashion — as a high-yield savings account, STRC is showing itself as anything but that.

Should the large decline persist, Strategy could be forced to hike the dividend (currently 11.5%) yet again in order to attract investors. This would put further strain on Strategy's limited cash resources, thus forcing the company to sell thousands more bitcoin (at possibly very distressed prices) in order to fund payouts.

Of course, STRC is preferred equity, not debt, so Saylor and team have many other options, including choosing not to pay the dividend. Markets likely wouldn't take too kindly to that, but it would keep Strategy from having to sell any more bitcoin. Stay tuned.

Crypto-linked stocks fell sharply after U.S. markets opened Friday, tracking a broader decline in digital assets as bitcoin (BTC) dropped more than 4% over the past 24 hours to $60,700.

Galaxy Digital (GLXY) led losses among major crypto firms, falling roughly 8% in early trading.

Bitcoin miners turned AI infrastructure providers also posted steep declines, with Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), Hut 8 (HUT) and Hive Digital (HIVE) all down nearly 10%.

Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), Bullish (BLSH), and Circle (CRCL) were all down by about 5%.

Leading corporate bitcoin holder Strategy (MSTR) was also lower 5%.

The Nasdaq was down almost 2% as the 10-year Treasury yield jumped six basis points following this morning's strong May jobs report.

Today's stronger-than-expected jobs report is "the least comfortable outcome for anyone hoping for rate relief," said Fabian Dori, chief investment officer at crypto bank Sygnum Bank.

With inflation still running above the Fed's target and the labor market showing little sign of weakening, the latest data all but rules out a June rate cut, he argued.

Markets were already overwhelmingly expecting policymakers to stand pat this month, but the jobs surprise could further reinforce expectations that rates remain unchanged through 2026, while bringing the possibility of future rate hikes back into the conversation.

For crypto markets, that means the liquidity boost often associated with lower borrowing costs may remain out of reach for longer.

Dori noted that other factors, including potential banking regulation changes and shifts in Treasury cash balances, could still provide some support.

But for now, "a hot labour print is likely the dominant macro impulse," he said.

"April and May were two of the slowest months in the past few years," wrote analyst David Koning, expecting Coinbase (COIN) to miss second quarter revenue estimates by about 5%-6%, with volume growth slipping 15%-20% from the previous quarter.

Koning also does not expect the Clarity Act to pass before the November elections, providing another industry headwind.

"The combo of falling estimates and weak multiples across beat/raise fintechs could eventually bleed into COIN's valuation," wrote Koning as Baird moved COIN to a Bearish Fresh Pick.

COIN is lower by 4% in early Friday trading.

Morgan Stanley — among the lead underwriters for SpaceX's (SPCX) mammoth IPO — is telling investors the company's revenue could hit $3.4 trillion by 2040, reports the WSJ.

That compares to 2025 revenue of just $18.7 billion.

The FT yesterday reported SpaceX lead underwriter Goldman Sachs telling investors that the company's AI division revenue could surge to $322 billion in 2030 from only $3.2 billion last year.

The banks, of course, are among those being tasked with selling a valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion for the Elon Musk-led company. The IPO is expected to take place next week.

"I mean ... come on," wrote noted skeptic Quoth the Raven.

The 10-year Treasury yield has spiked by 6 basis points to 4.54% in the minutes after May jobs numbers blew past economist forecasts. More sensitive to the Fed's monetary policy, the two-year yield has jumped 7 basis points to 4.12%, with the odds of one or more rate hikes by the end of the year rising to about 80%.

In addition to May's jobs adds of 172,000, April and March had combined revisions higher of 93,000. Over the last three months, now, the U.S. has added 565,000 jobs.

Already under some pressure, U.S. stock indices slipped further as the idea of imminent rate hikes gained momentum. Nasdaq futures are lower by 1.3% and the S&P 500 is down 0.6%.

Bitcoin is at $61,800, down about 1% over the past 24 hours.

The U.S. added 172,000 jobs in May, well above economist forecasts for 85,000. April's originally reported job gain of 115,000 was revised sharply higher to 179,000.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%, in line with estimates.

Bitcoin is dipping a bit more on the strong data, down to $61,800.

Zcash is down 44% over 24 hours to around $298, and the market-structure data suggests the crash came from spot selling, not a leverage cascade.ZEC saw roughly $118 million in forced liquidations, tiny for a token that nearly halved. Bitcoin and ether each fell only a few percent over the same window yet liquidated more, at $335 million and $278 million.Traders opened positions into the fall at the fastest pace on record, with the direction pointing to heavy new short interest. Meanwhile, open interest in ZEC terms climbed to a record high on Thursday, breaking the late-May peak.

Earlier, Shielded Labs, a nonprofit developer on the privacy token system, disclosed a critical vulnerability in Zcash's (ZEC) Orchard privacy pool that could have threatened the integrity of the token's supply.

The vulnerability, if exploited, could have allowed an attacker to create an unlimited number of counterfeit ZEC tokens, completely undetected.

"Think of it as someone secretly gaining access to the Federal Reserve's dollar printing press, except in this case, even the Fed wouldn't be able to tell these extra dollars were printed," wrote Omkar Godbole.

Importantly, the vulnerability was discovered with help from Anthropic's recently released Opus 4.8 AI model, raising difficult questions for the entire crypto industry. More to come on that.

ZEC is now down 42% over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin (BTC) has mostly given up yesterday's modest bounce, returning to $61,900 during U.S. morning hours, down 0.8% over the past 24 hours.

Coming in a few minutes is the U.S. Nonfarm Payroll Report for May. While the interest rate outlook has taken a back seat to other concerns amid this week's crypto price crash, this morning's data will nevertheless be significant.

Markets have swung from the certainty of rate cuts this year to rate hikes as inflation has risen, in part due to surging energy costs. About the only thing that might alter that outlook for rates would be a sizable downturn in the labor market.

If the interest rate outlook does another 180-degree turn (this time back to cuts), it could prove to be a much-needed tailwind to crypto markets.

Source: CoinDesk