The recovery we have been tracking all week found another gear. Bitcoin traded above $63,000 in US morning hours on July 4, up 1.4 percent on the day and 3.6 percent on the week, its highest level in two weeks per CoinDesk. Put the whole move together and it reads cleanly: from below $60,000 to above $63,000 in five sessions, reversing the losses that closed out June at 21-month lows.
The same three drivers, still working
Nothing new lit this candle; the existing fires kept burning. The June US jobs report, at 57,000 jobs added against 115,000 expected, keeps arguing against further Fed tightening. Fed chair Kevin Warsh's comment that inflation risks have come down gave that reading official cover. And the traders who spent June leaning short into the weakness have been getting squeezed out one session at a time, adding forced buying to the organic kind.
One honest caveat belongs next to the chart. July 4 is a US market holiday, and holiday order books are thin. Thin liquidity exaggerates moves in whichever direction they are already going, so some of Friday's strength is mechanical rather than conviction. The real test arrives when full-size US liquidity returns next week.
XRP takes fifth place
The single most notable line on the day belonged to XRP, up 5.3 percent to about $1.18 and nearly 10 percent on the week, the best of the majors. That push took its market cap to roughly $73 billion, enough to move past the USDC stablecoin into fifth place in the asset rankings, per CoinDesk. XRP traders have a specific catalyst on their calendar: the CLARITY Act, the market-structure bill the administration wanted signed around July 4, which remains stuck on Senate math. A structure bill passing would resolve the regulatory question that has shadowed XRP for half a decade.
The rest of the board followed rather than led. Ethereum added 3.2 percent to about $1,793 and is up 11.5 percent over seven days, quietly the strongest week among the top two. Solana held near $82.50 with a 13.2 percent weekly gain, extending the ecosystem strength we noted in Thursday's piece. Dogecoin rose 2.6 percent, which mostly tells you risk appetite is back to at least casually browsing.
The checklist, updated
We laid out three dials in our July 2 coverage: ETF flows turning, $60,000 holding, and the divergence from tech stocks repeating. Flows flipped positive on July 2. The $60,000 line has now held for three sessions and sits $3,000 below the market. The third dial gets its reading when US equities reopen after the holiday. Three green dials would make this the firmest tape since the spring, and as we keep saying, every confirmed-but-dateless token launch on our tracker is waiting for exactly that.
