Bitcoin traded above $60,700 early Thursday, its first move back above the $60,000 level in more than a week, after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation risks have eased. The remarks, delivered Wednesday at the European Central Bank’s annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, gave crypto its first clear lift after a June that erased roughly 20% of bitcoin’s value and pushed the asset to 21-month lows. Solana led the recovery among major tokens, and gold climbed for a second day. The bounce arrived alongside a steep selloff in Asian semiconductor stocks, a crack in the AI trade that has pulled capital away from crypto all year.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin climbed back above $60,000 for the first time in more than a week after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said “inflation risks have come down” at the ECB forum in Sintra.
- Solana rose about 4% to near $78 and is up roughly 16% over seven days, the only major token with a meaningful weekly gain.
- Warsh gave no guidance on the Fed’s rate decision four weeks out, saying policymakers will weigh incoming data first.
- A semiconductor rout sent Korea’s Kospi down almost 7% intraday, raising the question of whether capital rotates out of AI stocks and back into crypto.
Published: July 2, 2026, 09:20 UTC
What pushed bitcoin back above $60,000
Bitcoin reclaimed $60,000 within hours of Warsh’s first international appearance as Fed chair, a panel at the ECB’s annual forum in Sintra on Wednesday. “Inflation risks have come down,” Warsh said, while stressing that the central bank would not tolerate inflation above its 2% target, according to CoinDesk.
He declined to say what the Fed will do at its meeting in four weeks. On the same panel, ECB President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem agreed that central banks should step back from explicit forward guidance on rates.
The rebound follows a punishing stretch. Spot bitcoin ETFs are funds that hold bitcoin directly and trade on stock exchanges like ordinary shares, and they shed about $4.5 billion in June, their worst month on record. Bitcoin fell below $60,000 on June 27 as those outflows deepened, and the second quarter sealed only the third back-to-back quarterly loss in the asset’s history.
Solana leads the bounce
Solana rose about 4% Thursday to trade near $78, and its roughly 16% seven-day gain makes it the only large token meaningfully higher on the week, per CoinDesk data. Ether traded near $1,630, up about 3% on the day, while XRP held around $1.06. BNB, dogecoin and Tron remained lower over the week.
The move reached beyond crypto. Gold rose for a second day to trade above $4,060 an ounce, and the dollar steadied after two days of gains. Shares of Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, jumped more than 10% Wednesday, days after the company said it would sell bitcoin to fund $2 billion in buybacks.
An AI selloff raises the rotation question
The sharpest moves Thursday were in stocks, not crypto. A semiconductor selloff spread to South Korea, where the Kospi index fell almost 7% before paring losses. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropped more than 6%, and Kioxia fell 13% in Japan after a rally that had lifted the stock more than 650% this year, CoinDesk reported.
Two reports fed the unease. Bloomberg reported that Meta is building a cloud business to sell spare AI computing power, which raised concern the company overbuilt. Apple is separately in talks to buy chips from two Chinese semiconductor makers, a shift that would hurt Korean suppliers.
The AI trade is where money has flowed all year while bitcoin fell. If that trade keeps cracking, some of that capital could work its way back into crypto. Whether the reclaim of $60,000 holds will depend on ETF flows turning positive and on what the Fed signals at its late-July meeting.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly did Kevin Warsh say about inflation?
Speaking at the ECB forum in Sintra on July 1, Warsh said “inflation risks have come down” and repeated that the Fed will not accept inflation above its 2% target. He gave no guidance on the rate decision due in four weeks, saying the committee will weigh incoming data first.
Why did bitcoin fall so hard in June?
Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded about $4.5 billion in net outflows in June, their worst month since launch. That selling pressure pushed bitcoin down roughly 20% for the month to 21-month lows and handed the asset back-to-back losing quarters for only the third time in its history.
What would confirm a real recovery?
Two signals matter most: spot ETF flows turning positive again, and continued weakness in AI stocks pushing capital back toward crypto. A sustained hold above $60,000 into the Fed’s late-July meeting would suggest the overnight reversal was more than a one-day bounce.
