Bitcoin has rebounded to around $67,000 after US military strikes on Iran sparked a drop to the $63,000 mark on Saturday. Ethereum, meanwhile, has risen by over 6.5% in the past 24 hours at the time of writing, trading at just under $2,000 after dropping to $1,841 yesterday.
Bitcoin orices briefly rose above $68,000 after Iran’s government confirmed the strikes had killed the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.
But experts claimed more volatility awaits the crypto sector when US stock markets resume trading tomorrow, as bombs continue to fall across the Middle East.
“The real price discovery happens Monday when US equity markets and Bitcoin exchange-traded funds reopen,” Hayden Hughes, managing partner at the investment firm Tokenize Capital, told Bloomberg. “With missiles hitting Dubai, Iranian retaliation across the Gulf, and Strait of Hormuz closure risk, this is not a contained event.”
Optimists hope crypto ETF investors will continue to display “diamond hands,” and stick with Bitcoin throughout increasingly heated geopolitical turmoil — as has largely proved the case thus far during Bitcoin’s damaging downward slide.
Volatility warnings
Hughes said the crypto markets had reacted rapidly to reports of the start of joint US-Israel military operations against Iran on Saturday.
The total value of the crypto market fell by $128 billion in minutes, he said, adding that forced liquidations had also “cascaded.”
Hughes said that if Bitcoin ETF investors abandon their positions, Bitcoin levels could quickly fall below $63,000.
On X, experts claimed Bitcoin had already shrugged off the shock of February 28’s news.
“Bitcoin and Ethereum are pumping hard,” the crypto markets commentator Ash Crypto wrote on X. “[They have fully] recovered from the Iran strike news and [are] now pumping even higher.”
Ash Crypto also claimed the rebound was evidence the markets think the conflict will be short-lived.
Others concurred.
“Traders generally don’t expect the Iran conflict to have major negative economic consequences, and demand for upside Bitcoin calls has clearly picked up in recent days,” Markus Thielen, the head of research at 10x Research, told Bloomberg.
Following US-Israeli strikes, Iran’s military launched a series of counterattacks, hitting targets in Israel and several Middle Eastern nations.
Korea cautious
Despite crypto analysts’ optimism, global financial chiefs are braced for market shocks. In South Korea, Financial Services Commission chair Lee Eok-won called an emergency meeting on March 1.
Financial leaders in Seoul are concerned the still-booming South Korean stock market could nosedive as a result of the conflict. They warned of an incoming “influx of retail investor bargain hunters” set to take advantage of “short-term adjustments due to geopolitical risks,” South Korean media outlet Fn News reported.
Lee urged investors to be “especially vigilant.”
“The situation in the Middle East remains uncertain,” he said. “And if [the conflict] is prolonged, it could impact the economy in a very real manner.”
