Ether, Solana Rally as Short Covering Drives Bitcoin Toward $62,000

Crypto prices pushed higher on Friday, led by ether and solana, as a wave of short covering lifted bitcoin toward $62,000 and capped the market's first clearly strong week since mid-June. Bitcoin was trading near $61,360, up 2.5% over the past seven days, according to CoinDesk data. Ether jumped 4.2% in the past 24 hours to about $1,702 and is up 9.7% for the week. Solana hovered around $80, posting an 18.6% weekly gain—the strongest performance among major tokens. XRP rose 5.7% over the week to $1.09, while Hyperliquid's HYPE advanced 5.1% on the day. Liquidations data underscored the squeeze. Over the past 24 hours, traders positioned against crypto saw $281 million in forced closures, compared with $159 million in long liquidations, out of $440 million total across 95,690 traders, Coinglass reported. When short positions are liquidated, traders must buy back the asset to close out, adding demand that can cascade into further short liquidations. The largest single liquidation was an $18.2 million ether position on Hyperliquid. Ether accounted for $157 million of wiped short positions, exceeding bitcoin's $103 million in a notable reversal from the usual pattern. Macro conditions also supported risk assets. U.S. June employment data released Thursday came in weaker than expected, reducing expectations for another Federal Reserve rate hike and pressuring the dollar against most major currencies, Bloomberg reported. Softer hiring eased the case for restrictive policy that has weighed on crypto since the Fed's hawkish June outlook. Gold rose for a third straight session as rate-hike bets faded. Equities steadied as well. Asian stocks bounced after two days of tech-led losses, with South Korea's Kospi gaining 3% after briefly flirting with a technical bear market. Samsung Electronics climbed 6.8% following reports that AI firm Anthropic is in talks with the company to manufacture a custom AI chip—a signal that AI-related spending behind this year's equity rally remains resilient. A firmer AI trade can reduce the near-term pressure from capital rotating away from crypto, though it also revives the competition for investor flows seen in the first half of the year. The key question is whether the current squeeze turns into a sustained trend: short-covering can drive sharp moves without creating lasting demand, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still digesting record monthly outflows, and third-quarter liquidity is typically thinner—amplifying moves in either direction.