Bitcoin (BTC) staged a sharp recovery on Wednesday, climbing back above the $60,000 threshold after a prolonged period of selling pressure. The digital asset, which had dipped below $58,000 earlier in the session, bounced sharply following the release of weaker-than-expected U.S. economic data and cautious comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh.
The ADP National Employment Report for June showed private-sector job growth of just 98,000, down from 122,000 in May and below the consensus forecast of 113,000. The softer jobs data was followed by the ISM Manufacturing PMI, which dipped to 53.3 from 54 in May, while the Prices Paid subindex fell sharply to 73 from 82.1, well below expectations of 79. These figures suggested that inflationary pressures may be easing, giving the Fed less reason to tighten policy aggressively.
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, speaking at an ECB forum panel, declined to provide explicit forward guidance on the central bank's next moves. He acknowledged that there would be a "good family fight" over policy at the July meeting but offered no hints on whether rates would be hiked or left unchanged. His neutral tone, combined with the soft economic data, prompted a retreat in bond yields. The two-year Treasury yield, which had been sharply higher earlier, ended the day flat at 4.15%, while the 10-year yield pulled back from session highs.
Bitcoin responded by rallying from its overnight lows near $57,800 to trade at $60,100, a gain of about 3.2% over the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH) rose 3.8% and Solana (SOL) jumped 5.8%, reflecting broad-based strength across the cryptocurrency market. The move appeared to be a relief rally after weeks of relentless selling that had pushed bitcoin down nearly 20% in June.
Crypto Stocks Surge on Bitcoin Bounce
The positive sentiment spilled over into equity markets, particularly for companies with significant exposure to digital assets. Strategy (MSTR), the corporate bitcoin holder formerly known as MicroStrategy, surged 11.5% on the day, one of the biggest winners in the crypto complex. The company's high-yielding preferred stock, STRC, which had plunged to nearly $70 late last week, recovered to $88, up 3.8% on Wednesday.
Coinbase (COIN), the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, gained 10%, while Circle (CRCL), the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, advanced 3.7%. Bullish (BLSH), the operator of a regulated crypto exchange, rose 8.4%. The gains in these stocks highlight the close correlation between bitcoin's price and the performance of crypto-related equities.
Robinhood Expands Crypto Footprint in London
Robinhood (HOOD) used a London event to unveil a major expansion of its cryptocurrency business, reflecting the company's ambition to become a key player in the digital asset space. The brokerage announced the public rollout of its own blockchain, dubbed Robinhood Chain, and said it would expand its tokenized stock offering to 120 countries. On the decentralized finance (DeFi) front, Robinhood introduced a savings product built on the Morpho lending protocol, offering customers up to 7% yield. The company also revealed plans to expand its perpetual futures business beyond cryptocurrencies into commodities such as gold and oil, and received a Capital Markets Services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Robinhood shares rose 8% ahead of the official announcements, signaling investor optimism about the company's crypto strategy.
SpaceX Slides on Meta's AI Cloud Plans
In a contrasting move, SpaceX (SPCX) shares fell over 8% to $156.48, wiping out gains made since its Nasdaq listing earlier this month. The decline followed a Bloomberg report that Meta Platforms (META) is developing a cloud infrastructure business to sell access to AI computing power and models, directly competing with SpaceX's xAI unit. The news fueled concerns about intensifying competition in the AI infrastructure space, where SpaceX had recently signed a deal with Anthropic to lease all compute capacity at its Colossus 1 data center. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX has developed a prototype for an AI handset-like device, but CEO Elon Musk denied the report as "utterly false."
Bitcoin miners that have pivoted to AI infrastructure also suffered losses. Riot Platforms (RIOT) fell 7.5%, Hut 8 (HUT) dropped 8.5%, IREN (IREN) lost 4.7%, and Cipher Mining (CIFR) declined 8.2%. Chipmakers including Micron (MU), AMD, and Intel each fell about 5%, while Meta shares surged 6.3% on the cloud expansion news.
Venice Token Jumps on $1 Billion Valuation
VVV, the native token of AI startup Venice, surged 15% after founder Erik Voorhees announced a $65 million Series A funding round led by Dragonfly, valuing the privacy-focused AI platform at $1 billion. Voorhees, a longtime bitcoin advocate and former ShapeShift CEO, said Venice chose to raise equity rather than sell its sizable VVV treasury, which holds over 30 million tokens out of an 80 million circulating supply. The company has not sold any of its token holdings. The news boosted other crypto-AI tokens, with Grass (GRASS) rising 10% in the session.
HIVE Digital Raises $130M for AI Expansion
HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE), a digital infrastructure company, completed a $130 million private offering of 0% exchangeable senior notes due 2031, including the full exercise of an additional $15 million purchase option. The company said it expects net proceeds of approximately $124.5 million to support AI and high-performance computing (HPC) expansion, GPU acquisitions, and data center development. Combined with its April financing, HIVE has raised $245 million through 0% exchangeable notes this quarter.
Circle CEO Defends USDC Amid OpenUSD Competition
Circle Internet CEO Jeremy Allaire took to X to defend USDC's market position after investors questioned the impact of the rival stablecoin network OpenUSD (OUSD). Allaire noted that USDC processed nearly $30 trillion in onchain transactions in the first quarter, representing about 80% of dollar stablecoin transaction volume, with Tether's USDT handling most of the rest. He argued that liquidity, regulation, and years of adoption cannot be built overnight, and that large industry consortiums have a poor record of building successful products.
Bitcoin Volatility Index Spikes in June
Bitcoin's 30-day implied volatility index (BVIV) jumped nearly 22% in June, snapping a three-month losing streak, according to data from Volmex. The rise in volatility coincided with bitcoin's 20% price drop to below $60,000. The BVIV has developed an inverse correlation with the spot price since 2024, similar to the VIX for the S&P 500, reinforcing its role as a "fear index" for bitcoin.
Tokenized Stock Lender Edel Finance Exploited
Edel Finance, a tokenized stock lending protocol, halted its smart contracts after an attacker exploited an oracle pricing flaw involving wrapped tokenized stock collateral, creating about $403,000 in bad debt. The attacker manipulated the exchange rate between wGOOGLx and GOOGLx, causing the wrapped token to be valued at roughly 78 times its correct value. Edel said it will absorb the bad debt and restore affected depositors' balances 1:1.
U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs Suffer Worst Month Ever
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $4.5 billion in net outflows in June, their worst month since launching in January 2024, according to SoSoValue data. BlackRock's IBIT accounted for $3.55 billion of the total, including nine consecutive days of outflows. Total ETF assets fell from about $83 billion to $71 billion over the month. The outflows were driven by risk-off sentiment following SpaceX's massive IPO debut and the Fed's hawkish dot plot under new Chair Kevin Warsh.
Source: Coindesk News