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Bitcoin volatile, but flat, while crypto stocks bounce amid cooling AI fears
Coinbase, Circle, Galaxy, IREN and Riot led the early morning rebound among crypto-related stocks as the battered software sector found some relief.
Feb 18, 2026, 4:35 p.m.
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What to know:
- Despite a small handful of thousand-dollar swings, bitcoin remains in the $67,000 area in late-morning U.S. trade.
- Gold reclaimed $5,000, and oil jumped as Polymarket odds of U.S. strikes on Iran before mid-March topped 50%.
- Crypto stocks bounced, outperforming stagnant cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin can't seem to pick a direction, wildly swinging in the early hours of the Wednesday U.S. session with dips quickly bought and bounces erased just as fast.
Losing its overnight push above $68,500, BTC dumped below $67,000 at the start of U.S. trading. Buyers quickly stepped in, driving a sharp rebound to $68,300, but the bounce proved fleeting with prices quickly falling back to $67,000. Ether (ETH) followed a similar path, dipping back below $2,000 and down roughly 1% over the past 24 hours.
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Part of the crosscurrents came from traditional markets. On one hand, a steadier tone in risk assets came as concerns around artificial intelligence disruption in the tech sector cooled. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV), a proxy for the software sector that had been under pressure over the past weeks, bounced 1.9% in morning trading, suggesting some relief.
The broader Nasdaq was higher by 1.3% and the S&P 500 by 0.85%>
On the other hand, geopolitical jitters are back as traders increasingly brace for potential escalation between the U.S. and Iran. Traders on the prediction market Polymarket now assign more than 50% odds that the U.S. will launch strikes against Iran before March 15, up from about 30% just a day ago.
Gold climbed 2.5% to reclaim the $5,000 level, while silver surged 6%. U.S. crude oil jumped more than 3% to above $64 a barrel, underscoring heightened supply risks.
Despite the choppy crypto price action, crypto-related equities were bouncing. Exchange giant Coinbase (COIN), stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) and digital asset investment firm Galaxy (GLXY) were all 3%-5% higher.
Miners and AI-linked data center plays such as Riot Platforms (RIOT) and IREN (IREN) outperformed further, with each posting gains of 5.5%.
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Bitcoin steadies near $67,000 as traders pay for crash protection
The average bitcoin ETF investor now sits on a 20% paper loss, leaving the market vulnerable to capitulation selling if prices slide further, a Wintermute trader said.
What to know:
- Bitcoin stabilized around $67,000, avoiding a further breakdown for the moment, while altcoins lagged.
- Policy talks at the White House on the crypto market structure bill showed incremental progress, but strains in private credit markets and potential U.S. military action against Iran loom large over risky assets
- Crypto derivatives traders are playing defense, buying downside protection against a potential drop, the head of OTC at Wintermute noted.
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