This morning, Bitcoin rose again above $70,000 after dropping to the $69,000 range earlier. Now, its price is around $72,850, and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Solana, and XRP also increased with quite sharp movements. Looking at today's crypto info, everything moved in tandem with the sudden drop in crude oil prices $3 per barrel within a few minutes. Actually, the crypto market this week was heavily influenced by oil movements. Oil surged sharply as geopolitical tensions escalated, but then quickly dropped again. Stocks were also affected - the Nasdaq moved from decline to a 0.5% gain as oil prices fell. Some crypto stocks like MSTR and Galaxy Digital rose moderately, but Coinbase and others dipped slightly. On the inflation side, February's CPI data was in line with expectations - a 0.3% monthly increase with a 12-month rate of 2.4%. This means the Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates at the March and April meetings. According to analysts, next week's Fed decision will be key to seeing how they respond to this situation. For Bitcoin itself, next month's data increase may already be priced into the market.

Just saw the details of this crypto market pullback—yeah, it’s pretty intense. Over the weekend, the situation in Iran suddenly heated up. Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum, demanding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, or else he would bomb energy facilities. Once the news hit, Bitcoin plunged straight from $75,912 last Friday to over $69,000, giving back most of last week’s gains overnight. The market reaction was indeed fierce. In 24 hours, the close-out amount reached $299 million, of which longs accounted for around 85%—meaning roughly $254 million were long liquidations. Bitcoin longs alone lost $122 million, and Ethereum longs also lost $95.7 million. It looks like the market was already broadly bullish before the weekend, building up a lot of one-way bets. Ethereum fell to $2,114, XRP dropped to $1.41, Solana slid to $88.55, and almost all major coins moved down collectively at roughly the same time. The question now is that this 48-hour deadline expires on Monday night. If Iran doesn’t back down—which doesn’t seem very likely—then there really could be the first wave of strikes directly targeting civilian energy facilities. This geopolitical risk directly outweighs last week’s relatively mild stance from the Federal Reserve. What’s interesting is that last Friday Trump was still saying he was considering “de-escalating” military actions, but 24 hours later he changed his wording. The market was caught off guard by this rapid turn, and now everyone is waiting for Monday’s open. From the data, the futures trend over the weekend can basically predict the direction of Monday’s traditional markets, so this sell-off may continue to spread.

Bitcoin has just surged above $72,800 while I watch the charts here. That's an interesting move, especially when you see that Ether and XRP are reacting significantly less dynamically. What I notice right now: While Bitcoin shows this strength, the altcoins are lagging a bit. Ether is just over 1 percent up today, but XRP is practically not moving at all – only 0.07 percent in 24 hours. That’s quite a big difference compared to Bitcoin’s momentum. Interestingly, the whole scenario correlates with what’s happening in the commodity markets right now. Oil prices are falling noticeably, which would normally be bullish for riskier assets like cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin seems to be benefiting from this, but the altcoins are hesitating. I’ll keep an eye on how this develops over the next few days.