Soft Jobs Data Kills the Rate Hike Story. Crypto Bounces Back.
Friday’s U.S. jobs report changed the mood heading into this week. The economy added just 57,000 jobs in June, roughly half of what analysts expected, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.2%. The weaker hiring data significantly reduces the odds of a Fed rate hike this month, which is exactly the kind of signal crypto markets needed.
Bitcoin opened Monday above $63,000 USD, up from last week’s lows near $58,000. Ethereum climbed nearly 12% over the past seven days. The altcoin season indicator reached its highest reading in three months. Historically, a red June has preceded a green July for Bitcoin, and the market is tracking that pattern so far.
Also worth noting: Vitalik Buterin announced Ethereum’s biggest rebuild since the Merge, a multi-year overhaul touching nearly every major part of the protocol. It includes quantum resistance and privacy upgrades. That announcement landed just as Ether was posting its strongest weekly gain in months.
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Market Intelligence & Action
Weekly Snapshot (June 29 – July 06, 2026)
Crypto bounced back this week after a soft U.S. jobs report reduced the odds of a near-term Fed rate hike. Bitcoin recovered from its recent lows near $58,000 USD, Ethereum posted its best weekly gain in months, and the altcoin season indicator reached its highest reading since March. Gold and silver also moved higher as the dollar softened and new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh signaled continued caution on rates.
| Asset | Week Open (CAD) | Current Level (CAD) | 7-Day Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC | $82,500 | $85,114 | +3.2% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,175 | $2,397 | +10.2% |
| Litecoin (LTC) | $66 | $76.29 | +15.6% |
| USD Coin (USDC) | $1.36 | $1.36 | 0.0% |
| Gold (XAU/oz) | $5,566 | $5,753 | +3.4% |
| Silver (XAG.oz) | $83 | $86.38 | +4.1% |
This Week’s Updates
1. Macro: Jobs Miss Takes Rate Hike Off the Table
June Nonfarm Payrolls came in at 57,000, well below the 115,000 analysts expected. The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.2%. That combination, weak hiring with modest unemployment, suggests the labor market is cooling without collapsing, which is exactly the backdrop the Fed needs to hold rates rather than hike. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh reinforced that message this week, signaling continued caution. The dollar softened on the data and gold climbed back toward $4,170 USD per ounce, its highest level in weeks.
Pro Tip: Rate hike fears drove a lot of the selling pressure in late June. With that risk now significantly reduced, the macro backdrop for crypto in July looks meaningfully better than it did a week ago.
2. Industry News: Ethereum’s Biggest Rebuild Since the Merge
Vitalik Buterin published a revised Ethereum roadmap this week describing the most significant protocol overhaul since the 2022 Merge. The multi-year rebuild will touch nearly every major component of the network, with quantum resistance and enhanced privacy moving up the priority list. The announcement landed while Ether was already up around 12% on the week, its best performance since March. Separately, Strategy sold 3,588 BTC last week to raise $216 million for preferred stock dividends, confirming that even major institutional holders actively manage their positions, a reminder that price movements around corporate treasury events are part of the market’s normal operation.
Market Insight: Ethereum gaining 10%+ in a week while its core protocol is being rebuilt from the ground up is a strong signal. Developers and investors are moving in the same direction.
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The RapidEX Knowledge Centre
What Is the Federal Reserve and Why Does It Move Crypto Markets?
The Federal Reserve comes up in almost every Weekly Pulse. It drove a lot of June’s selling pressure and it drove this week’s recovery. If you hold Bitcoin or Ethereum, understanding what the Fed does and why markets care so much is genuinely worth a few minutes.
What It Is. The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. It sets the interest rate at which banks borrow money from each other overnight, called the federal funds rate. That one number influences borrowing costs, mortgage rates, savings returns, and the relative appeal of almost every investment on earth.
Why It Moves Crypto. When rates are high, safe assets like bonds pay decent returns with no risk. That makes speculative assets like Bitcoin less attractive by comparison. When rates fall or are expected to fall, the opportunity cost of holding crypto drops, and capital flows back in. This is why a single jobs report can move Bitcoin 5% in a morning.
What To Watch. The Fed meets roughly every six weeks. Before each meeting, economic data like jobs reports, CPI, and PCE inflation shape expectations. Markets often move more on those data releases than on the Fed decision itself, because traders are constantly pricing in what they think the Fed will do next.
The RapidEX View: You do not need to follow every Fed statement. But knowing whether markets expect rates to rise, hold, or fall gives you useful context for why crypto is moving the way it is on any given week.
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