Bitcoin is holding above $71,000 even as the Middle East conflict enters its third week, highlighting the market’s growing resilience to geopolitical shocks.
On Saturday morning BTC traded around $71,000, down about 0.7% in 24 hours after U.S. strikes hit military targets on Kharg Island — Iran’s main crude export facility. That pullback followed a brief march toward $73,838 on Friday; bitcoin gave back roughly 3.5% on the Kharg headlines but the sell-off was limited. A month ago, a similar escalation would likely have sparked a much deeper drop.
The weekly performance underscores the theme of durability. Over the past seven days:
- Bitcoin is up about 4.2%
- Ether gained 5.5%, trading near $2,090
- Dogecoin rose 5%
- Solana added 4.2% to around $88
- BNB climbed 4.5% to roughly $655
Traders say the market has adapted. Early in the conflict, every headline produced outsized moves because tail risk was unpriced. Now investors are operating with a working script: strikes push oil higher, bitcoin dips, then recovers. That reflexive “sell the headline” response has diminished — though a $73,000–$74,000 resistance zone has now repelled BTC four times in two weeks.
Politics injected a fresh layer of uncertainty late Friday when former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had spared oil infrastructure “for reasons of decency” but would “immediately reconsider” if Iran continued blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Iran warned any attack on energy facilities would bring retaliatory strikes on U.S.-linked targets — a conditional escalation that could worsen what the IEA has already called the largest energy supply disruption in history if oil infrastructure is targeted.
Derivatives activity reflected the two-way session. Over the past 24 hours roughly $371 million was liquidated, with short liquidations ($207 million) outpacing long liquidations ($163 million) as Friday’s surge initially squeezed bears before the Kharg headlines pressured newly opened longs.
All eyes now turn to the Fed meeting on March 17–18. With oil trading above $100 and the region embroiled in a widening conflict, the risk of stagflation is getting harder to ignore. The CME FedWatch tool still prices better than a 95% chance the Fed will hold rates at 3.50%–3.75%, but the dot plot and Jerome Powell’s press conference will matter more than the decision itself. Any signal that rate hikes could return would likely hit risk assets, including crypto markets that have been pricing in cuts that haven’t yet arrived.
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