Bitcoin bounces back above $61,000 — but it just closed its worst first half in years

Bitcoin climbed back above $61,000 on Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks had eased and a weak U.S. jobs report cooled expectations of higher interest rates. The bounce came at the end of a rough stretch: Bitcoin fell more than 20% in June, its worst month since 2022, and closed one of its weakest first halves on record.

For most of the year, money has been flowing out of crypto and into artificial-intelligence stocks. That rotation is a big reason Bitcoin has struggled even as the broader economy held up. This week, though, cracks appeared in the AI trade — a sharp selloff in chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix knocked nearly 8% off South Korea's stock index — and some of that nervous money looked for other homes.

The immediate trigger for Bitcoin's move was macro, not crypto. Warsh, speaking in Portugal, softened his tone on inflation for the first time in weeks, and June's U.S. jobs report came in far weaker than expected. Together those lowered the odds that the Fed will raise rates soon, which tends to help riskier assets like crypto.

Underneath the price, the picture is mixed. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs — a major source of institutional buying since 2024 — have seen sustained outflows, and that selling has kept prices weak. At the same time, on-chain data from Glassnode suggests long-term holders have quietly started buying again, absorbing coins from newer investors who bought higher and are now underwater.

For a beginner, the useful takeaway is not a price target but a sense of the weather. Crypto is in a drawdown, sentiment is cautious, and a single good day does not undo a losing six months. Headlines will swing between “the bottom is in” and “more pain ahead” — both are guesses. None of this is advice to buy or sell; it is context to help you read the noise without being ruled by it.