Bitcoin tops $65,000 after weak July jobs report

Bitcoin traded near $64,940, having climbed as high as roughly $65,300, while ether held around $1,910, both building on gains made earlier in the week. The moves followed the Labor Department's July employment report, which showed nonfarm payrolls falling by 23,000 against economist forecasts of gains in the 80,000 to 83,000 range, the first monthly decline in months. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1 percent from 4.2 percent.

Private payrolls actually rose by 30,000 even as government employment fell by 53,000, underscoring that the headline weakness was concentrated in the public sector. The soft report reinforced bets that the Federal Reserve will hold off on further rate rises at its September meeting.

A jobs report weak enough to lift bitcoin while private hiring kept growing is the kind traders now parse line by line rather than take at face value.