In brief
- Bitcoin dropped more than 4% to $103,556 following Israeli airstrikes near Tehran and Tabriz.
- The strikes mark a major escalation in Middle East tensions, prompting safe-haven flows into gold.
- U.S. officials said they were monitoring the situation; oil and equity futures also slipped.
Bitcoin fell more than 4% late Thursday after Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Iran, escalating tensions in the Middle East and prompting a broad selloff across risk assets.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped to $103,556, down from a 24-hour high of $108,500, according to CoinGecko data.
Israel confirmed the strikes targeted Iranian military infrastructure near Tehran and Tabriz, in what it described as a “preemptive response” to growing threats.
In a press briefing on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled Iran’s nuclear ambitions a “clear and present danger,” saying the preemptive response would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat.”
Iran has not yet issued a formal response, but state media reported explosions and disruptions to air traffic in affected areas.
The move comes days after a high-level meeting between Israeli defense officials and U.S. counterparts. Washington has not commented on the attack but said it was monitoring the situation closely.
“The latest Israel–Iran escalation is rattling risk assets and the Oil market, but we’ve seen this movie before,” Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, told Decrypt.
“Previous flashpoints—including the April 2024 strikes—triggered weekend sell-offs across crypto, only to reverse sharply once the situation de-escalated. Those moments turned out to be great buying opportunities,” he added.
Jamie Coutts, Chief Crypto Analyst at Real Vision, agreed, adding that Bitcoin continues to behave as a risk-on, risk-off asset among short-term traders, but noted that institutional allocators are increasingly shaping its medium to long-term direction.
“That’s why short term it can move with risk assets but long term outperform gold,” he said.
Gold rose 1.7% to $2,414 an ounce, while U.S. futures pointed lower as investors weighed the risk of broader regional conflict.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
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