Bitcoin fell over the past week, but its decline was less severe than the broader drop in stocks since the onset of the conflict with Iran on February 28.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency traded at around $68,000 on Sunday, a drop of about two percent in the last 24 hours and around six percent in the last seven days, according to CoinGecko data. Today, the price of bitcoin is around $71,000, marking a rise of 3.5 percent in the last 24 hours.
This move comes as the war with Iran enters its fourth week, contributing to rising crude oil prices and a pullback in risky assets by Friday.
The geopolitical backdrop worsened over the weekend after U.S. President Donald Trump issued Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face U.S. attacks on Iranian power plants, prompting Tehran to threaten a complete closure of the vital oil shipping route and targeting energy infrastructure linked to the U.S. across the region.
U.S. stocks have been falling for four consecutive weeks, with the S&P 500 last week falling below the 200-day moving average for the first time since March of last year, a key technical level closely monitored by institutional investors. According to Google Finance data, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen by about four to five percent this month.
Energy was the only major sector that grew during this period as oil prices began to climb back towards $100 per barrel.
A turnaround occurred on Monday after Trump announced a temporary postponement of attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, following the start of negotiations to end the conflict in the Middle East, to which the markets reacted with an instant rise.
Signs of Resilience
However, the monthly decline in bitcoin was more modest than the drop in stocks, with a loss of only 0.2 percent, which some market participants attribute to earlier leverage reductions in the crypto market and continued institutional participation.
– After going through several rounds of leverage reduction in recent months, bitcoin has significantly outperformed traditional risk-adjusted assets since the start of the war in Iran – said John O’Loghlen, CEO for the Asia-Pacific region at Coinbase.
He added that as oil becomes an active transmission channel for global inflation, the company is seeing a growing institutional inflow into crypto assets and U.S. bitcoin ETFs.
While macroeconomic conditions are influencing market sentiment, experts say that only the crypto market is showing signs of resilience, not large distributions.
– The cryptocurrency market is in a phase of stable consolidation, with clear signs of institutional strength and accumulation – said Nischal Shetty, founder of WazirX.
He added that bitcoin is holding support near the lower boundary of its recent range while facing resistance near recent highs, signaling that buyers remain active despite macro uncertainty.
A mid-March report from VanEck’s ChainCheck revealed that the selling by long-term holders has slowed, with a decline in the volume of large transactions, indicating that experienced investors are easing distribution pressure.
Analysts say that the next move for bitcoin will likely depend on macroeconomic data in the upcoming week, including flash PMI and further movements in oil prices, which increasingly shape inflation and interest rate expectations.
