Ether and solana extend gains as a short squeeze lifts bitcoin toward $62,000

Ether and solana led crypto higher on Friday as a squeeze on bearish traders pushed bitcoin toward $62,000, capping the market's first genuinely strong week since mid June.

Bitcoin traded around $61,360, up 2.5% over seven days, per CoinDesk data. Ether rose 4.2% in 24 hours to about $1,702 and is up 9.7% on the week, while solana held near $80 with a weekly gain of 18.6%, the strongest among the majors. XRP added 5.7% over the week to $1.09 and Hyperliquid's HYPE rose 5.1% on the day.

Traders betting against crypto lost $281 million to liquidations over the past 24 hours, against $159 million in longs, out of $440 million in total forced closures across 95,690 traders, according to Coinglass data.

When shorts are forced to close, they buy back the asset, and that buying pushes prices into the next tranche of shorts, the loop that turns a modest bounce into a squeeze.

The largest single liquidation was an $18.2 million ether position on Hyperliquid, fitting a day when ether led the damage to bears at $157 million in wiped positions against bitcoin's $103 million in an unusual flip.

The macro backdrop helped. U.S. June employment data came in weaker than expected on Thursday, trimming bets that the Federal Reserve will raise rates again and weakening the dollar against most major currencies, according to Bloomberg.

Softer hiring cuts the case for the restrictive policy that has weighed on crypto since the Fed's hawkish June outlook, and gold climbed for a third day as those rate-hike bets faded.

Stocks steadied too. Asian shares rallied after two days of tech-led losses, with South Korea's Kospi climbing 3% after flirting with a technical bear market.

Samsung Electronics rose 6.8% after reports that AI firm Anthropic is in talks with the Korean company to manufacture a custom AI chip, a reminder that the AI spending underpinning this year's equity rally has not slowed even as investors argue over its pace.

A stabilizing AI trade removes the immediate pressure of capital rotating away for crypto markets, though it also revives the competition for flows that defined the first half.

The open question is whether the squeeze becomes a trend. Forced short-covering produces fast moves but not durable demand, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still working through record monthly outflows, and the market enters the third quarter with thinner liquidity that cuts both ways.