Bitcoin Price Surges Past US$68,000 Following US-Israel Strike on Iran
Bitcoin (BTC) surged sharply to breach the US$68,000 level during trading on Sunday, 1 March 2026, following Iran’s confirmation that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in an operation conducted by the United States and Israel.
Bitcoin strengthened by 2.21 per cent to reach US$68,196 or approximately Rp 1.14 billion (at an estimated exchange rate of Rp 16,830 per US dollar) following the announcement. At 11.00 Singapore time, Bitcoin traded around US$67,700 after having fallen by as much as 3.8 per cent during the previous day’s trading.
Not only Bitcoin, but Ethereum also recorded significant gains of 4.58 per cent, reclaiming the psychological level of US$2,000. The surge in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency reflects increased investor appetite for risk assets amid global geopolitical uncertainty.
Cryptocurrency markets experienced severe volatility in the initial hours following the US-Israel military strike. Iran immediately responded with retaliatory strikes on several regions, including Israel, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, whilst threatening US military bases in Iraq.
However, digital assets began to recover as investor sentiment stabilised. Market participants assessed that the economic impact of the conflict was likely to be less severe than initially feared, bolstered by news of Khamenei’s death in the strike.
“Traders generally do not anticipate that the Iran conflict will have a major negative impact on the global economy, and demand for Bitcoin call options has clearly increased over the past few days,” said Markus Thielen, Head of Research at 10x Research, according to Yahoo Finance on Monday, 2 March 2026.
CoinGecko data showed that cryptocurrency market capitalisation recovered approximately US$32 billion on Sunday morning. Previously, the cryptocurrency market value had declined by as much as US$128 billion in a single day due to market panic.
Managing Partner of Tokenize Capital, Hayden Hughes, attributed Bitcoin’s recovery to its unique characteristic as a 24-hour traded asset, making it an early indicator of market reaction to global crises. He emphasised that the “true” price will be determined when US stock markets and Bitcoin ETFs reopen.
“Bitcoin is the only large liquid asset traded 24 hours, so it absorbs all the selling pressure that would normally be spread across stocks, bonds and commodities,” said Hughes.