BTC Bounces Back Above $102K After Iranian Strikes on U.S. Bases in the Gulf

Bitcoin BTC$68,445.04 is quickly responding to developments in the Middle East.

After briefly sinking to $99,500, bitcoin has bounced back 2.9% in the last hour and is now trading at $102,400. The digital asset is still up 2.5% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 (an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, memecoins and exchange coins) has risen 2.1% in the same period of time.

Bitcoin's drop occurred as Iran retaliated against U.S. President Donald Trump's administration's weekend bombardment of three of its nuclear sites. The Middle Eastern nation carried out missile strikes against American bases in multiple Gulf countries, including Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The attack on Qatar resulted in no casualties or injuries, according to a Qatari official.

Investors appeared to be unfazed by the military action. Gold, a traditional haven assets, barely inched higher at around $3,380, while crude oil prices plummeted 4% during the day.

"Crude getting crushed. Good sign," Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat, noted in an X post.

"Generally when it comes to war and other external factors that disrupt things globally, there tends to be heavy short-term dips which later rebound depending on the severity as well as how things are communicated," said Nicolai Søndergaard, research analyst at blockchain analytics firm Nansen. "So far I'd say we are seeing the situation play out similarly here."

"Smart money still seems to be going a bit more risk off," he said, adding that exchanges saw some notable outflows, suggesting opportunistic investors bought the dip in prices.