The U.S. job market just delivered a surprise — and Bitcoin responded right away. If you’d like to know why job numbers even matter for crypto, stick with us and keep reading. It’s just a short couple of minutes.
Good to know
- April saw 177,000 new jobs added in the U.S., beating March’s weaker numbers.
- The unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.2%, as economists predicted.
- Bitcoin reacted quickly, jumping above $97,000 as markets relaxed.
Every month, the U.S. government releases something called the Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report. It tells us how many new jobs were added across the country, excluding farming, government, and some other categories. For April, that number came in at 177,000, which was just below the forecast of 185,000, but still a clear jump from March’s 130,000.
Even more importantly, the unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.2%, exactly as expected. This kind of steady report signals to investors that the U.S. economy is handling high interest rates without falling apart.
That matters, because when the economy seems stable, people are more willing to invest in assets like Bitcoin. The stock market reacted first — the S&P 500 rose over 1% in early trading — and Bitcoin followed soon after.
Bitcoin crosses $97,000 as investors warm up again
Once the jobs data hit the news, Bitcoin price shot up above $97,000. Its market cap reached around $1.92 trillion, and daily trading volume stayed close to $30 billion.
What does that tell us? It looks like investors are becoming more comfortable with risk again. When fear of a recession cools down, Bitcoin tends to benefit, especially as people look beyond traditional assets.
A quick word on scarcity
Here is something else to keep in mind — Bitcoin is limited. Only 21 million coins will ever exist. Right now, around 19.85 million are already in circulation. That leaves very little new supply to go around.
So when more people decide to buy Bitcoin — especially during a wave of optimism — prices can rise quickly because there just is not much left to buy.
Why the Fed still matters
Even though the latest job numbers are encouraging, they do not tell the full story. The Federal Reserve will still need to decide how to handle interest rates in the coming weeks. Their decision will play a big role in shaping how much appetite there is for Bitcoin in the short term.
But for now, both Wall Street and the crypto market seem to be breathing a little easier — and that is showing up in Bitcoin price, which at the time of writing is trading at $96,380 according to CoinMarketCap data.