Bitcoin edged higher on Monday, with investors weighing more mixed messaging coming out of the U.S. and Iran on the Middle East conflict.
The world’s largest crypto clocked a two-week losing streak on Friday, as risk assets have generally fared poorly since the start of the war.
At 18:13 ET (22:13 GMT), Bitcoin rose 1.4% to $66,734.8.
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Iran escalation in focus Markets on Monday received signals that the war in Iran was escalating, especially after the Yemen-based, Iran-backed Houthi group joined the fray by launching missiles at Israel over the weekend.
The Houthis’ involvement could open a new front in the war, especially given their capacity to launch strikes in the Red Sea.
Separately, President Donald Trump threatened to strike key Iranian energy infrastructure and the critical Kharg island if the country did not reach a deal with the U.S.
The U.S. was in "serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran," Trump said on his Truth Social service.
"Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ’Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ’stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ’touched,’" the president added.
Iran has continued to deny any talks. Iran’s state media on Monday said Iran had received messages through intermediaries about the U.S. seeking discussions, but had dismissed Washington’s demands as "excessive" and "illogical," citing foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei.
The White House later told reporters that what was being publicly said was "much different than what’s being communicated to us privately" and asserted that talks were ongoing.
"Crypto started the week on firmer footing, with total market capitalization up 1% over the past 24 hours to $2.32 trillion, despite renewed fears of Middle East escalation," Dessislava Ianeva, analyst at Nexo Dispatch, said.
"Geopolitical developments continue to drive short-term volatility across assets, raising the stakes for this week’s macro data," she added.
Strategy potentially skips Bitcoin purchase for the first week since late-Dec Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, may not have added to its Bitcoin holdings last week, a report by Coindesk noted.
Executive Chair Michael Saylor usually signals upcoming purchases in an X post every Sunday, followed by an announcement on Monday. This time, however, Saylor made a post touting Strategy’s preferred equity offerings.
A potential pause in weekly purchases could end a 13-week streak of continued buying by Strategy since late-December, where it accumulated a total 90,831 Bitcoin, Coindesk reported.
Crypto price today: altcoins track Bitcoin higher Broader crypto prices also mostly advanced on Monday.
