Bitcoin traded in an extremely tight range near $64,000 on Thursday, with investors reluctant to place big bets ahead of Friday's U.S. jobs report. The largest cryptocurrency by market value hovered around $64,400 to $64,800, roughly flat over 24 hours, as macro factors and corporate earnings kept sentiment in check. The market remained in a wait-and-see mode, with trading volumes subdued and volatility unusually low.
Bitcoin Holds Tight Range Ahead of Jobs Report
Bitcoin's price action on Thursday was characterized by extreme stability, with the cryptocurrency pinned near $64,500 for most of the session. According to data from major tracking platforms, BTC rose just 0.8% over 24 hours and 1.3% on the week, while ether gained 2.1%. Most other major cryptocurrencies barely moved, reflecting a market that is less in rally mode than in a holding pattern.
The bid under bitcoin was coming from macro hopes rather than fresh crypto demand. President Donald Trump pointed to strong employment, better manufacturing data and cooling inflation, while also raising the possibility of a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A reopening would likely pressure oil lower, easing inflation worries and giving Treasury yields and the dollar room to fall. That is the setup risk assets want, and bitcoin is trading like some of it may arrive.
The problem is that the trade still depends on several steps lining up. Lower oil has to feed into lower inflation expectations, and those expectations have to pull down real yields and the dollar. Bitcoin's roughly 63% correlation with the S&P 500 also means equity sentiment may matter more than crypto-native flows in the near term. A calmer Middle East backdrop helps risk appetite, but it can also reduce the safe-haven demand that supported bitcoin earlier in the summer. Analysts noted that the levels to watch are real yields and the dollar. If both fall alongside oil, bitcoin has a cleaner path above the top of its recent range. If yields stay firm, the macro case remains theoretical and bitcoin likely stays pinned near $65,000.
MARA and CleanSpark Disappoint in Q2 Earnings
Bitcoin miners were in the spotlight on Thursday as two major companies reported quarterly results that missed Wall Street expectations. MARA Holdings (MARA) missed earnings estimates as large unrealized losses on its bitcoin holdings overshadowed modest growth in mining output in the second quarter.
Revenue came in at $174.9 million, below the $204 million consensus estimate, while the company posted a net loss of $611 million. MARA mined 2,422 BTC during the quarter, up 3% from a year ago, and increased its energized hashrate 22% to 70.3 EH/s. However, bitcoin held fell 29% from year-ago levels to 35,577 BTC. Shares traded flat near around $10.60 following the report, after slipping 5% during the regular session ahead of the earnings.
CleanSpark (CLSK) also reported third-quarter results that missed revenue expectations, posting $138 million in revenue versus the Street's $149 million estimate. Shares fell about 0.5% in after-hours trading. The company highlighted its 20-year, $6.6 billion triple-net lease at Sandersville, fully funded its anticipated equity commitment, and secured long-lead equipment to keep the project on schedule. Total assets reached $2.7 billion, liquidity stood at $917 million, and power under contract increased to 1.8 gigawatts. CEO Matthew Schultz said in a statement that the company remains focused on the commercialization of its existing assets and the acquisition of scalable infrastructure to further bolster its portfolio.
Macro Picture: Inflation, Oil and the Fed
Markets are at an important point, with investors trying to work out whether inflation will keep slowing or stay stubbornly high. According to Oxford Economics, this week's economic data, especially Friday's U.S. jobs report, could influence expectations for interest rates and what the Federal Reserve does next. Bond yields continue to be relatively high due to the U.S. government's borrowing, keeping long-term borrowing costs elevated, even though markets are expecting fewer interest rate increases from the Fed than they were a few weeks ago.
Investors are also listening closely to comments from Fed officials for clues about how committed they are to bringing inflation back to target. A report from the Financial Times this morning indicated that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh was prepared to raise interest rates in September if inflation fails to ease over the coming weeks and bond markets continue to come under pressure. Warsh has made clear that he is not a fan of the Fed's addiction to guiding markets about future policy, and the report suggested he acknowledged making mistakes in his first 10 weeks at the helm.
On a longer-term perspective, many economists expect inflation to continue easing as price increases for services slow, the effects of tariffs fade and supply chains improve. If that happens, the Fed may be able to leave interest rates unchanged for an extended period, creating a more stable environment for stocks, bonds and the wider economy, even if markets remain choppy in the short term.
Oil and Bond Yields Surge on Hormuz Plan Details
In commodity markets, oil prices surged after details emerged of a joint Iran/Omani plan to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. Among the proposals was a provision that would prohibit the passage of vessels belonging to the U.S., the Israelis, and other hostile countries through the strait. The plan was widely seen as a non-starter, but oil responded immediately. The price of WTI crude rose 3.3% for the day to $77.70 per barrel.
The jump in oil sent interest rates higher, with the two-year U.S. Treasury note yield up six basis points to 4.24%. The Nasdaq slipped from a modest gain to a modest loss, down 0.15%. Bitcoin continued to flatline around $64,500, showing little reaction to the volatile macro picture.
SpaceX Rallies on Share Unlock Day
In equities, SpaceX (SPCX) rallied on the day nearly 1 billion shares became available to sell. At $112.35 a bit more than two hours into the trading day, the stock was higher by almost 4%. In the days and weeks leading up to the share unlock, the stock had plunged, dropping more than 30% over the past month and more than 50% from its mid-June record high.
The move came as the stock's first lockup expired, freeing up to 911.5 million insider shares, worth over $100 billion, to trade for the first time. SPCX is already down more than 50% from its $225 June peak and below its $135 IPO price, so much of the unlock risk was sold in advance rather than waiting for the date. The test now isn't whether insiders sell, but whether the market absorbs it.
In conjunction with Tesla, SpaceX announced that the location of their massive chip-building Terafab will be in Grimes County, Texas. The initial investment is expected to be $16.8 billion, but the final amount is likely to be several multiples of that amount. The companies said that combined SpaceX and Tesla demand for chips is expected to be in excess of 1 terawatt (TW) of compute, which is significantly larger than the current global supply.
Mag 7 Stocks Lift Nasdaq as AI Storage Names Tumble
In the broader tech market, the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks helped lift the Nasdaq, with Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta all up roughly 1%. This strength offset sharp declines in AI storage names. SanDisk and Western Digital remained sharply lower, down 5% and 12%, respectively, following their earnings reports last night. The damage, for now, wasn't spreading to the broader tech market.
Trading seemed likely to remain muted ahead of Friday's key employment data for July. June's report was a weakish one, and another soft print on Friday could have investors quickly paring back expectations of a Fed rate hike in September. A strong report, however, is likely to push markets to fully price in tighter central bank policy into the end of the year.
Jobless Claims Hold at Very Low Levels
U.S. initial jobless claims edged up by 1,000 to 199,000 last week, below economist forecasts for 202,000. The four-week average dipped to 198,750 from 203,250. Claims around 200,000 or lower are associated with a very strong labor market. The main event, of course, comes Friday when the government releases its Nonfarm Payrolls report for July. Those numbers have recently been somewhat weaker than suggested by jobless claims. Forecasts call for 80,000 jobs to be added in July, up from 57,000 in June, with the unemployment rate expected to remain at 4.2%.
Altcoins Show Selective Strength
While bitcoin remained flat, a handful of tokens posted sharp gains over the past seven days. MemeCore's M was up 24%, Pump.fun's PUMP had risen 20%, and Cardano's ADA advanced 15%. These moves point to pockets of strength and selective capital allocation rather than a broad risk-on shift. Gains concentrated in meme tokens such as PUMP and M, however, offer poor optics for a market still attempting to climb out of a deep bear phase.
Regulatory and Institutional Developments
In regulatory news, the CLARITY Act, which would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and CFTC and set rules for exchanges, issuers and some DeFi, appeared unlikely to clear the Senate before the August 7 recess. According to Joel Kruger, markets strategist at LMAX Group, that outcome is largely priced in. Betting platform Polymarket cut the odds of 2026 passage to 28% from an 82% peak. Kruger noted that SEC Chair Paul Atkins has signaled he'll provide clarity through agency guidance, an alternative path to a workable framework even if Congress runs out of clock. He flagged $67,300 in bitcoin and $2,000 in ether as the resistance levels that matter. A convincing break above either would be the sign the market is shifting into a more meaningful upside phase.
Institutional interest in bitcoin continued to grow, with U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs registering a net inflow of $626 million in three days. That put these funds on track to register their best weekly performance since early May, according to data source SoSoValue. Analysts say the pace of inflows needs to sustain for bitcoin to chart a meaningful rally. Vikram Subburaj, CEO of India-based FIU-registered Giottus.com, said in an email that several consecutive days of inflows will be needed to confirm a sustained recovery in institutional demand.
In other corporate news, SoftBank posted a smaller-than-feared 18% drop in quarterly net income to ¥347.3 billion ($2.3 billion), more than double the ¥166 billion analysts expected, carried by a ¥1.3 trillion ($8.5 billion) gain on its Intel stake. Intel rose 216% in the June quarter, and SoftBank's $2 billion bet at $23 a share last year did the heavy lifting while its OpenAI position sat flat on valuation. The read for crypto is the same AI-capital signal that has set the tape all quarter. Bitcoin has traded as a high-beta proxy for that risk appetite for months, up when the AI trade works and down when it wobbles.
Crypto exchange Coinbase also expanded its offerings, rolling out stock trading for its U.K. users, letting them buy, sell and manage select U.S. equities in the same app as their crypto holdings. Trading is available 24/5 with no commission and fractional shares, allowing investors to start with as little as 1 pound ($1.35). Traders can fund their accounts with sterling or USDC. As of August 6, 2026, eligible UK users will progressively gain access to select US equities.
With all these factors in play, bitcoin's tight range near $64,000 reflects a market that is deeply uncertain about the near-term path of the economy. Friday's jobs report will likely be the catalyst that breaks the stalemate, but until then, traders are content to wait on the sidelines.
Source:Coindesk News