Bitcoin (BTC) price hits $71,800 as investors rotate into havens during Middle East escalation

Bitcoin BTC$70,908.51 rallied to a one-month high of $71,800, effectively dismissing the risk-off sentiment that has restricted upside in U.S. equities over the past week.

The largest cryptocurrency stalled just below $72,000, a level it last reached on Feb. 8 before sliding back to $65,000.

Precious metals also rallied on Wednesday, with gold and silver up 1.8% and 5.3%, respectively, since midnight UTC. Bitcoin is up by 4.8% over the same period.

The move to haven assets comes as war continues to rage in the Middle East, with Israel saying it hit several security headquarters across Iran while Iran attacked U.S. sites in Dubai and Qatar.

Equities are little changed since midnight, lagging the broader crypto market.

Derivatives positioning

• Over the past 24 hours, global crypto futures open interest (OI) has increased by 8% to nearly $103 billion. Trading volume also rose, albeit by less than OI, indicating renewed interest in holding positions rather than trading in and out. That adds credibility to the price bounce.
• Open interest in futures tied to the top 10 tokens rose. DOGE led with a 10% increase.
• Perpetual funding rates and cumulative volume delta for most major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, are positive, a sign of buying pressure building up in another hint of a continued price recovery.
• Bitcoin and ether’s (ETH) 30-day implied volatility indexes remain steady at levels seen before the start of the Middle East conflict, a sign there is no panic in the market.
• On Deribit, BTC and ETH puts still trade notably pricier than calls in a sign of lingering downside fears.
• The $125,000 strike call expiring end-March, a bet that prices will surge beyond that level in four weeks, is the most traded option of the past 24 hours. Deribit said that the bulk of the activity represents the closing of existing short positions rather than fresh purchases (bullish bets).
• Block flows featured demand for bitcoin call spreads and call ratio spreads, a sign of moderate bullish sentiment. In ETH’s case, traders chased both call and put spreads.

Token talk

• The altcoin market is beginning to show signs of strength after almost a month of consolidation. Ether (ETH) rose by 5% since midnight UTC, with daily trading volume remaining consistent at $25 billion.
• But it was the lower-liquidity, lower-market-cap tokens that outperformed the majors; KITE, AERO, and TAO all increased by double digits in the past 24 hours, while the likes of PUMP and DCR have rallied by around 6% since midnight UTC.
• The crypto Fear and Greed index has risen from multi-year lows of 5/100 in February to 19/100, suggesting a measure of optimism is entering the broader crypto market.
• The CoinDesk Computing Select Index (CPUS) was the best-performing benchmark over the past 24 hours, rising by 7% while the BTC-weighted CoinDesk 20 (CD20) increased by around 5% over the same period.