Bitcoin holds $68,300 as gold crashes for a ninth day and Asian stocks drop
The Iran conflict's fourth week is breaking the traditional safe-haven playbook, with gold down to $4,360 and equities falling for a third consecutive session.
By Shaurya MalwaUpdated Mar 23, 2026, 4:56 a.m. Published Mar 23, 2026, 4:55 a.m.
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What to know:
- Global markets are sliding amid the escalating Middle East conflict, with Asian equities nearing correction territory, bond yields rising and gold suffering a nine-day losing streak despite its traditional haven status.
- Bitcoin has fallen about 6 percent over the past week but is holding above a key $66,000 support level and has outperformed most traditional assets and other major cryptocurrencies during the latest war-driven sell-off.
- Investors and analysts say structural shifts, including earlier heavy official-sector gold buying and resilient bitcoin derivatives markets, are shaping price moves as oil surges and Goldman Sachs raises its crude forecasts on what it calls the largest-ever supply shock.
Everything is selling. Bitcoin is selling the least.
Gold dropped for a ninth straight day on Monday to around $4,360, its longest losing streak in years. Asian stocks fell for a third session and are set to enter correction territory.
Bond yields climbed as the prolonged war threatened to stoke inflation and push central banks toward rate hikes rather than cuts. S&P and European futures pointed to further losses. Brent crude edged up to $113 a barrel, now up more than 70% year-to-date.
Bitcoin was trading at $68,316 on Monday morning, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours and down 6% on the week. Ether rose 2.7% to $2,059. XRP gained 2% to $1.38. Tron climbed 0.3% to $0.309, the only major green on a weekly basis at 3.8%. BNB fell 1.2% to $627. Solana dropped 2.5% to $86.54. Dogecoin lost 1.7% to $0.09, down 7.4% on the week and the worst-performing major.
The weekly numbers are ugly across the board. Gold, the asset that's supposed to outperform in geopolitical chaos, has lost roughly 18% from its recent highs. Asian equities are entering a correction. Bitcoin is down 6% on the week but still trading above the $66,000 floor that held through every war-driven sell-off since Feb. 28.
"The gold rally and the BTC collapse are more structural than market-based," said Alexander Blume, CEO of Two Prime, an SEC-registered investment advisor. "China and others have been systematically buying gold as part of a broader effort to decouple from Western markets and the US dollar." That buying has reversed as the conflict intensified and liquidity became the priority over safety.
Blume noted that both bitcoin's price and derivatives markets "have held up decently well" given the macro backdrop, and said Two Prime is positioned for "an increase in funding and futures rates in the weeks and months to come," effectively betting the contrarian view that an upside surprise is more likely than the market expects.
Trump's 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday to "hit and obliterate" Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz isn't reopened expires Monday evening. Iran responded that any such attack would trigger an indefinite closure of the waterway and retaliatory strikes on U.S. and Israeli energy infrastructure across the region.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs raised its full-year Brent forecast to $85 from $77 and WTI to $79 from $72, describing the Hormuz disruption as the "largest-ever supply shock for global crude markets."
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