(March 31): Cryptocurrencies rose with stocks and bonds in Asia Tuesday as investors weighed a report that US President Donald Trump is considering ending the war with Iran.
Bitcoin rose as much as 2.6% to US$68,335 but pared gains to trade below US$68,000 at 1.20pm in Singapore, up 1.3%. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was up as much as 3.3% while Solana and XRP saw gains of as much as 2.2% and 1.5%, respectively.
Markets bounced after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump told aides the US could end its military campaign against Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, potentially signalling an earlier end to the conflict than expected. S&P 500 futures reversed a decline to trade up around 1%.
“The market is anticipating that Trump wants out of the war,” said Pratik Kala, a portfolio manager at Apollo Crypto, a digital asset hedge fund. “Bitcoin’s price has been incredibly sticky around US$68,000.”
For much of March, Bitcoin has held steady even as equities and gold have fallen on inflation fears fuelled by the potential for an energy crisis if the Strait of Hormuz were to remain closed. Gold is down more than 13% this month, while Bitcoin is up roughly 3%.
This has made crypto markets look relatively stable in recent weeks compared with the past few months. An October selloff left Bitcoin down about 45% from its all-time high that month of over US$126,000.
See also: Bitcoin tumbles with stocks as Trump signals harder Iran strikes
Investors continue to seek downside protection. Crypto options platform Deribit shows a concentration of over US$1.5 billion worth of put contracts at US$60,000. But Kala said put buying could subside in the next couple of weeks.
“Bitcoin has been remarkably resilient, and it’s not lost on all fund managers,” he said.
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