A promising crypto rally ran into a wall on Monday after fresh headlines from the Middle East abruptly reversed bitcoin’s climb to a near one-month high.
Bitcoin surged to nearly $74,000 earlier in the session before reversing sharply to $71,200 Monday morning, as news of the UAE’s Fujairah port was hit and is suspending oil loads. The Wall Street Journal has also reported the Pentagon is deploying a Marine expeditionary unit of roughly 2,500 troops to the region, including forces attached to the USS Tripoli. President Trump has also warned that Nato faces a ‘very bad’ future if allies fail to help secure the strait of Hormuz.
U.S. equities surrendered early gains, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq turning to losses of 0.4% to 0.5%, while oil climbed more than $5 per barrel from its session lows.
Paul Howard, director at trading firm Wincent, noted that optimism over geopolitical developments, including Russian sanction relief, had been a driver of the earlier price action, but cautioned that such headlines tend to have a short half-life.
Crypto-linked equities held onto gains, with bitcoin miner Marathon Digital jumping 10% and Galaxy Digital, Bitmine and Cipher Mining each climbing between 5% and 7%. The divergence between spot crypto prices and mining stocks suggested markets viewed the pullback as a temporary reaction rather than a fundamental shift in sentiment.