Bitcoin rebounds after weak US jobs report

The US jobs report for July, published on 7 August 2026, made for grim reading: the economy shed 23,000 jobs, where economists had expected 80,000 new ones. The unemployment rate actually edged down, to 4.1 percent, against expectations that it would hold steady.

Bitcoin went up on the news. It opened at 64,259 dollars (about €56,227), some 0.5 percent below Thursday's open, and by around 9:02 a.m. New York time it stood at 65,144 dollars (about €57,001). Ethereum rode the same move, climbing from 1,902 dollars (about €1,664) to 1,929 dollars (about €1,688).

Why bad news pushes the price up

This is the pattern you have seen again and again this year: weak labour market figures raise the odds that the Fed cuts interest rates, and lower rates make an asset with no yield, such as bitcoin, relatively more attractive. Investors were not buying because the economy is doing well, then, but because it is not.

That is a shaky foundation, and it is worth knowing what you are riding on. A rate cut is an expectation, not a decision. If sentiment turns, or a figure lands that points the other way, the reason disappears as fast as it arrived.

The one-year picture tells another story

Look only at today and you see green. Look back a year and you see something else. Bitcoin is 44.1 percent lower than in August 2025, and ethereum 48.4 percent. Bitcoin's all-time high was 126,198 dollars (about €110,423) in October 2025; ethereum peaked in August 2025 at 4,954 dollars (about €4,335).

In other words: the market is well past the halfway mark on the road back down from the top, and a day of plus one and a half percent does little to change that.

What Europe has to add

For European investors there is a second thread running under this story. The European Central Bank keeps its own pace, and the euro's exchange rate against the dollar helps decide what a rise in dollars is worth to you in euros. A bitcoin that gains 2 percent while the dollar weakens by 2 percent leaves you with nothing in euros. So look at the price in the currency you actually count in.

What this is worth to you

Do not trade on a single figure. A jobs report is one data point, and the first reaction to it is regularly reversed within days. If you want to do something with moments like these, look at the calendar rather than the outcome: the next rate-setting meeting, the next inflation figures, and whether the pattern repeats.

If you count in euros, look at your portfolio in euros too. Many apps show dollars by default, and that distorts your return in both directions.

And put the annual figure next to it before you buy anything. Minus 44 percent over twelve months is no reason to stay away, but it is the context in which today's one and a half percent sits. Investing in crypto remains risky; never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Sources: Yahoo Finance (7 August 2026), US Department of Labor (July 2026 jobs report). Last checked: 8 August 2026.