Bitcoin rose 3.7% to $64,977.3 over the past 24 hours by 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT). The token had slumped as low as $59,693 when reports of the Israeli strike first broke on Friday morning.
Bitcoin’s fall below $60,000- which is considered a key support level for the cryptocurrency, signaled that risk appetite, especially towards crypto markets, remained fragile.
This was also evidenced by traders pivoting into the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar and gold in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli strikes.
Multiple media reports linked explosions seen across Iran earlier on Friday to drone attacks by Israel. While Iran’s major nuclear facilities appeared to be undamaged by the strikes, the move marked a potential escalation in the conflict and could spill over into a war across the Middle East.
After its sharp decline, the market’s focus shifted back to the upcoming halving event, elevating the flagship cryptocurrency close to $65,000 on the day.
The halving event, which is expected to take place with the generation of block no. 840,000 on the Bitcoin blockchain, is set to take place over the weekend.
The halving will effectively cut the reward for mining Bitcoin by half, and is expected to reduce the rate at which new Bitcoin is generated. The event ties into the notion that declining supply of Bitcoin will push up its price, but past halvings have yielded few near-term gains.
JPMorgan analysts said that Bitcoin was still sitting in overbought territory after a strong run so far this year, and could see more price declines after the halving.
The recovery in Bitcoin prices spilled into other major cryptocurrencies as overall sentiment improved after recent headwinds.
World no.2 crypto Ethereum rose 2.2%, while XRP climbed 1.3%. Solana popped 6%.
Other major altcoins were also trading above intraday lows, having recovered from an initial drop in response to the Israel-Iran news.
On Thursday, U.S.-based spot bitcoin ETFs experienced a continuation of their recent withdrawal trend, registering outflows totaling $4.3 million.
This marked the fourth consecutive day of net outflows, occurring just before the much-anticipated halving.
Since April 12, these ETFs have seen more than $319 million in cumulative net outflows, according to provisional data from Farside Investors.
A significant portion of these withdrawals can be attributed to Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which reported $90 million in outflows on Thursday alone.
These losses were somewhat mitigated by inflows into other funds; Fidelity’s FBTC and BlackRock’s IBIT saw some investments, although the inflow to BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)’s IBIT was notably lower at $18.8 million, a sharp 93% decrease from its monthly peak of $308.8 million on April 5.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
