The war between the US and Iran continues to escalate day by day, with a recent new threat from US President Donald Trump. Considering this, even Polymarket’s odds on the US-Iran ceasefire are high when it comes to year-end betting.
Iran opens doors to crypto amid unrest
Amid these escalating tensions, Polymarket has reported that Iran is collecting payments in crypto as tolls from ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
This shows how crypto acts as a hedge against turmoil and inflation. When the war broke out, it was essentially only the crypto market that was standing strong, while gold, silver, S&P 500 stocks, and the entire traditional asset market were weakened.
This comes as Bitcoin [BTC] was trading at $69,753.50 after rising 4.06% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin against gold and the US dollar
However, if we compare Bitcoin to gold, a completely different picture emerges. The BTCXAU chart shows that Bitcoin has been consistently underperforming gold for months. In short, Bitcoin is trying to make a comeback phase but has not succeeded.
The Bitcoin Gold ratio further confirms this sentiment and shows that we are currently in a cool-down phase after a major cycle.
Furthermore, if we compare Bitcoin to the US dollar, the BTCUSD chart shows that Bitcoin is not falling aggressively, but it is not breaking out either.
All of this together shows that while Bitcoin and crypto are being used in times of war and uncertainty, their relative strength is still weak.
Basically we look at the top assets by market cap; gold is still at the top, while Bitcoin is still struggling in 12th place.
There remains hope
However, with Bitcoin dominance at 59.02%, there is hope that Bitcoin will recover, but for that to happen, things need to calm down globally.
But now that big names like Michael Syalor are still showing confidence in Bitcoin and noting:
Bitcoin has won. The global consensus is that $BTC is digital capital. The four-year cycle is dead.
There is hope that everything will return to normal soon.
On the back of these developments, the current state of the crypto market had already been predicted by Coinbase’s global head of investment research, David Duong, who summed it up well when he said:
We think markets will continue to price a modest geopolitical risk premium in crypto until there is clearer direction on when the conflict could end.
Final summary
- Iran’s acceptance of crypto payments shows how crypto acts as a hedge in times of war.
- Bitcoin is strong, but not strong enough to beat gold and the US dollar, indicating that Bitcoin is currently in the stabilization phase and has not yet fully recovered.