Middle East Tensions Shake Crypto as Bitcoin and Ethereum Slip

Bombings in the Middle East, an Iran without a leader: World politics are also impacting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with the crypto markets experiencing slight losses.

The Bitcoin price curve dipped over the weekend from $68,000 to around $66,000

US military strikes against Iran are causing unrest in financial and oil markets, but a crash has been averted.

Bitcoin ETFs reported their first positive weekly result since early January, but the $800 million in inflows weren’t enough to offset the losses of previous weeks. Bitcoin ETFs have now lost around $1.8 billion since the beginning of the year – however, in good months, inflows of $3 billion or more were the norm, both in 2024 and 2025.

Ethereum was trading at just over $1,900 on Monday morning, having also lost some ground following the events in Iran, falling from prices just above $2,000. Ethereum ETFs saw a small inflow of capital last week, gaining $80 million, but their monthly results have been negative since November.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin expressed his amazement on X that a solo developer was able to theoretically implement complex ETH upgrade goals in just two weeks using artificial intelligence (AI). Six months ago, such results for “Vibe Voding” with AI would have been unimaginable, but now the trend is clear. Buterin cautions that bug fixing should continue to be carried out carefully by humans. However, he now expects a faster pace in the technological development of Ethereum.

Altcoins diverged as Kava surged and Zcash declined

KAVA can consider itself the winner of the day ; a 24 percent increase in 24 hours is impressive. The DeFi project launched with the support of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange back in 2019, but KAVA suffered a brutal crash in 2023. KAVA’s recent price surge could be attributed to speculation.

Zcash (ZEC) is the biggest loser among the 30 most important global cryptocurrencies today, down 6 percent. Over the past week, the privacy coin has already lost 13 percent. Its main competitor, Monero (XMR), gained 9 percent in the same period, and the competition between the two leading privacy coins appears to be over for the time being.

Crypto investors rush to derivatives market

The sentiment barometer for the crypto markets remains at “extreme fear”, which is hardly surprising given the bombings in the Middle East.

One person’s loss is another’s gain: The war in Iran attracted more than $500 million in bets on the Polymarket betting platform, reports CoinDesk – a record result.

The derivatives-focused exchange Hyperliquid also profited from the global political developments, according to Decrypt . With traditional stock exchanges closed over the weekend, traders turned to Hyperliquid, resulting in significantly higher trading volumes. Hyperliquid also plans to enter the betting market.

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(Featured image by Moslem Daneshzadeh via Unsplash)

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