US August Payrolls Hit 162,000, Sending Bitcoin (BTC) Below $80,000

162,000 Jobs Versus 56,000 Expected

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $80,000 within minutes of Friday's US employment report, after August nonfarm payrolls came in at nearly three times the consensus estimate. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the US economy added 162,000 jobs in August against expectations clustered near 56,000, with the prior 12-month average monthly gain sitting at just 31,000. For the market's largest proof-of-work asset, the revisions carried more weight than the headline itself: July's previously reported loss of 23,000 jobs was restated as a gain of 21,000, while June moved up to 31,000 from 20,000. Unemployment held at 4.1%, and average hourly earnings climbed 0.3% to $37.75, lifting the annual wage pace to 3.1% — ahead of the 3.0% forecast. On the chart, the five-minute Bitcoin and gold comparison shows the parallel shock: BTC traded at $81,340 just before the release, slid to $79,661 inside a single five-minute candle — a 1.80% drop — and last changed hands near $79,860, a path we flagged in our earlier coverage of the Bitcoin (BTC) slips to $79K move. Gold offered no shelter either, sliding from $4,473 to $4,376 an ounce, a 1.75% loss, in the same window. Leverage magnified both moves: liquidation data logged $201.33 million in positions wiped out within one hour, $186.01 million of that from longs — a sweep that caught retail clips and crypto whale-sized books alike — taking the 24-hour total to $750.29 million.

Hike Odds Rebuild Before CPI

The positioning into the print tells you why the reaction was so sharp. Odds of a September Federal Reserve hike sat near 66% at the end of August, then halved this week after Governor Christopher Waller signaled support for a hold — a shift that carried Bitcoin market and gold prices higher together through the session and pushed BTC back above $80,000. Friday's data reverses that logic. Firm wages and upward revisions hand Chair Kevin Warsh exactly the tight labor market his hiking case needs, reviving bets on a September increase. The composition reinforced the message: gains were led by a leisure and hospitality rebound of 62,000, with food services and drinking places adding 55,000 and local government education 42,000, while the two-month net payroll revision added 55,000 and the three-month average climbed to +71,000, as economist Christophe Barraud summarized on X. The mirror image played out a month ago, when a weak July print drove gold futures higher on Binance; Friday ran the same trade in reverse. Consumer price data lands on September 11, five days before the Fed decides, and a soft inflation print could still undo much of Friday's repricing. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

Greed Reads at 74 Into the Fed Window

The derivatives detail behind the flush is worth unpacking. Binance BTC/USDT five-minute data showed spot and futures cumulative volume delta falling in tandem through the dump — a signature of concentrated market-sell orders — while open interest slid quickly from roughly 111,000 BTC to near 110,000 BTC, indicating existing leveraged books were being closed out rather than new shorts being built. Funding held positive at 0.0043%, meaning long demand persisted even as price broke down, leaving leveraged longs bearing the brunt. Per-asset liquidation mapping put Ethereum at $73.15 million for the hour, ahead of Bitcoin's $69.15 million, with XRP at $12.39 million and Solana at $11.02 million. Shorts absorbed $17.21 million in the same window, and the 24-hour split — $479.52 million in short liquidations versus $278.49 million for longs — flipped abruptly once the payrolls hit, underscoring how fast the market's direction reversed.

The political fallout from the print added a fresh wrinkle. Writing on Truth Social shortly after the release, President Donald Trump demanded the Federal Reserve cut rates immediately, arguing that a strong economy warrants the world's lowest borrowing costs, and warned that if the central bank refuses, he would use presidential authority to halt trade with countries running deficits against the United States — a tactic he claimed is "better than tariffs" and one he said the Supreme Court has recently endorsed. The intervention runs counter to market pricing: traders read the robust 162,000 gain as strengthening the case for the Fed to hold, or even raise, rates at its September 15-16 meeting, with the benchmark rate currently at 3.50%-3.75%. Whether the threat to fuse monetary policy with trade restrictions disturbs risk sentiment into the decision remains to be seen.

Technical analysts framed the flush as a test of the breakout rather than its failure. After rejecting the $81,250 Murray Math pivot at an intraday peak near $82,281, Bitcoin held near the $78,800–$79,300 breakout-retest zone that had previously capped price. Trader Wealthmanager argued that a defense of that band would keep another push toward $82,000 in play, while analyst Gerla flagged $79,000 as the key point of control, warning that a loss could send price rapidly into the $76,000–$77,000 value area. A decisive daily close below $78,125 would expose the psychological $75,000 level, with structural support near $71,875 beneath it. On the downside, CoinGlass' liquidation heatmap shows dense clusters around $78,000 and $77,500–$77,800, while overhead liquidity sits near $80,200 and $81,800.

(as of 14:30 UTC) COINOTAG's aggregate market data still reads greedy: our Fear & Greed Index prints 74/100, with Bitcoin holding a 68.8% share of the $2.32 trillion tracked universe and capital yet to exit in size. Short-term books absorbed Friday's flush; the HODL-style cohort has not been forced to sell — and with CPI due September 11, macro repricing, not cycle position, is the swing factor.