US job growth slows as Bitcoin price soars past $62,000

Bitcoin surged past US$62,000 on Friday, as data from the United States Labor Department reported the unemployment rate rising to 3.9% last month.

In April, the U.S. economy’s job growth decelerated, with the creation of 175,000 non-farm jobs falling short of the 243,000 jobs forecasted.

The Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates steady has contributed to the softening of the U.S. dollar and Bitcoin’s rebound.

Bitcoin, which fell to as low as US$56,800 this week, traded at US$61,678 at 2:30 p.m. ET, according to CoinGeck.

Bitcoin’s rebound follows multiple positive developments for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, including the launch of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

The Bitcoin network underwent the quadrennial halving on April 20, cutting miner rewards by 50% from 6.25 to 3.125 Bitcoins.

The halving impacts the scarcity of the asset by slowing down the inflow of new Bitcoins.

The launch of Runes, which is a new fungible token protocol on Bitcoin, also coincided with the halving.