TL;DR
- Bitcoin rebounded 2% to $68,500 after hitting $65,600 low amid market turmoil.
- Oil surged past $100 per barrel, crushing Asian and European equity markets significantly.
- BTC’s safe-haven pattern repeats, mirroring March 2 rally from $65,500 to $74,000.
Bitcoin opened the week with a sharp recovery, printing an intraday high of $69,497 while equity markets across Asia and Europe crumbled under the weight of oil prices crossing $100 per barrel for the first time since 2022. The leading cryptocurrency slid to a session low near $65,600 before buyers stepped in and pushed the price back up, eventually settling around $68,500 with a 2% daily gain.
The rebound carried real weight. Bitcoin’s market capitalization climbed to $1.39 trillion, pulling the total crypto market toward a $2.43 trillion valuation. Even so, BTC still trades 1.2% below its level from seven days prior, a reminder that the broader cooling cycle hasn’t fully broken yet.
The timing of the recovery stands out. Monday’s price action closely mirrors what happened on March 2, when Bitcoin also staged a defiant advance while traditional markets sold off. In the days following that earlier episode — tied to escalating tensions in the Middle East after the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei — BTC climbed from $65,500 to nearly $74,000 within 48 hours, reinforcing the asset’s growing reputation as a store of value during geopolitical stress.
Oil Above $100 Tears Through Global Equity Markets
The driver behind Monday’s equity selloff came from energy markets. A series of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Gulf states forced major producers to suspend operations and declare force majeure, sending oil surging past the $100-per-barrel level and triggering fears of a severe global supply disruption.
Japan’s Nikkei shed nearly 2,900 points in one of its sharpest single-session drops on record. South Korea’s Kospi, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and China’s Composite index all registered steep losses. European indices initially held firmer but ultimately drifted into negative territory as the session progressed.
The Nasdaq held flat, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones contained their losses to under 1% — a relatively controlled decline given the intensity of the external shock.
Against all of that, Bitcoin held ground and advanced. Whether the asset fully earns the safe-haven label remains a debate across trading desks, but the price data from the past two weeks keeps pointing in the same direction: when geopolitical risk spikes, capital finds its way into BTC.
The week also carries a historical footnote — the 20 millionth Bitcoin entered circulation, leaving only 1 million coins left to ever be mined under the protocol’s fixed supply cap of 21 million.
