Bitcoin edges higher amid Middle East war

The world’s largest crypto clocked a two-week losing streak on Friday, as risk assets have generally fared poorly since the start of the war

Bitcoin edged higher on Monday, with investors weighing more mixed messaging coming out of the U.S. and Iran on the Middle East war.

The world’s largest crypto clocked a two-week losing streak on Friday, as risk assets have generally fared poorly since the start of the war.

At 22:13 GMT, Bitcoin gained 1.4% to $66,734.8.

Markets on Monday received signals that the war in Iran was escalating.

Iran has continued to deny any talks. Iran’s state media on Monday said Iran had received messages through intermediaries about the U.S. seeking discussions, but had dismissed Washington’s demands as “excessive” and “illogical,” citing foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei.

The White House later told reporters that what was being publicly said was much different than what’s being communicated to us privately and asserted that talks were ongoing.

Crypto started the week on firmer footing, with total market capitalization up 1% over the past 24 hours to $2.32 trillion, despite renewed fears of Middle East escalation, Dessislava Ianeva, analyst at Nexo Dispatch, said.

Geopolitical developments continue to drive short-term volatility across assets, raising the stakes for this week’s macro data, she added.

Strategy, the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, may not have added to its Bitcoin holdings last week, a report by Coindesk noted.

Executive Chair Michael Saylor usually signals upcoming purchases in an X post every Sunday, followed by an announcement on Monday.

Broader crypto prices also mostly advanced on Monday.

World no. 2 crypto Ether gained 3.1% to $2,034.71, while XRP rose 0.8% to $1.3282.

Among meme tokens, while Dogecoin jumped 1.2%.