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Bitcoin, ether steady, gold slides as US-Iran tensions escalate again
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- DeepHorus
Bitcoin and ether held steady above $62,000 and $1,730 respectively on Thursday, while gold extended its slide to a fourth day and oil climbed for a third consecutive session, as renewed U.S.-Iran tensions drove divergent market reactions. Bitcoin traded at $62,009, down 1.2% over 24 hours but up 1.6% on the week, while ether slipped 1.2% daily to $1,730 yet gained 5.7% over seven sessions. Gold fell to around $4,060 an ounce, and Brent crude rose 1% to $78.80 a barrel after the U.S. military completed another round of strikes and both sides raised the prospect of closing the Strait of Hormuz.
The escalation reignited inflation concerns and pulled forward Federal Reserve rate expectations, with money markets moving their bet on the next interest-rate increase from December to October. Government bonds in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand declined, extending a global selloff that pushed two-year Treasury yields toward their 2026 high. Higher rates typically weigh on non-yielding assets like gold and bitcoin, but the reactions have been sharply different.
While gold slid on the rate repricing, bitcoin posted only a modest 1.2% daily decline, a pattern that has held across each leg of the conflict since February. Analysts note that successive escalations have elicited progressively smaller reactions from bitcoin, suggesting the market has stopped pricing Middle East risk as a crypto-specific event and started pricing it as a rates event. The Fear and Greed index has climbed to 27, pulling out of the extreme fear zone it occupied for 40 straight days, though it remains below the neutral 50 threshold.
Traders are watching $60,000 as the critical level that will determine bitcoinâs next leg. If bitcoin absorbs further Hormuz escalation without breaking $60,000 while gold continues to slide, the rotation out of the traditional hedge would be validated, reinforcing bitcoinâs repricing as a rates-sensitive asset. Conversely, a sharp break below $60,000 on similar news would suggest the recent calm was merely a function of quiet trading rather than a structural market shift.
In a separate development, stablecoin market capitalization fell to $312 billion in June, marking its largest monthly drop since the collapse of TerraUSD in 2022. Meanwhile, tokenized equity volumes surged 145% to a record $3.86 billion, highlighting a growing shift toward blockchain-based financial products. These trends underscore the evolving dynamics of digital asset markets amid geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
