Cryptocurrencies started the week on a strong footing with bitcoin rose above $74,000 and US stocks rose as oil prices fell.
In US morning trading, BTC hit its strongest price since early February at $74,500, up 3.9% over the past 24 hours. The largest crypto broke out of its six-week range, boosting sentiment across the broader market and increasing appetite for smaller, riskier tokens.
Bitcoin’s rejection from its previous low in February of $60,000 is now approaching 25%, a remarkable move given several rejections of around that amount during 2022’s long crypto winter. These rebounds failed several times that year before the final flush in November to below $16,000 that coincided with the FTX collapse.
Altcoins are outperforming bitcoin in the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH), solana (SOL) and have each risen more than 7%, suggesting renewed appetite for higher-risk cryptoassets after a period when capital was largely concentrated in bitcoin.
US stock indexes also rose after recent losses. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were each up more than 1% in morning trade. Meanwhile, oil prices, a key driver of recent macro volatility, retreated. Crude futures fell about 4% on Monday after briefly topping $100 a barrel over the weekend on Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
Monday’s action came as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz – a critical oil shipping route between the Persian Gulf and global markets – appeared to ease slightly. US President Donald Trump called on other nations to help secure the waterway, while some Pakistani oil tankers have reportedly crossed the strait, suggesting traffic through the corridor has not been completely disrupted.
Crypto-related stocks were higher on Monday, with Circle (CRCL) up 6%. Strategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) were about 5% and 3% higher, respectively.
Bitcoin miners also win
Amsterdam-based AI infrastructure provider Nebius ( NBIS ) signed a deal with Meta ( META ) worth up to approximately $27 billion, marking one of the largest AI compute partnerships announced this year.
Under the five-year deal, Nebius will provide about $12 billion in dedicated AI computing capacity across multiple locations. The infrastructure will be built on one of the first large deployments of NVIDIA systems, designed to support Meta’s growing AI workload.
Shares in Nebius rose about 13% after the announcement, while Meta gained 2.5%.
The deal appears to lift sentiment across the broader AI computing and data center cohort. Among bitcoin-related names: IREN (IREN) was higher by 6%, Galaxy Digital (GLXY) by 8% and Cipher Mining (CIFR) by 7%.
While TeraWulf (WULF) secured a $500 million 364-day senior secured bridge facility led by Morgan Stanley to finance the construction of its Hawesville, Kentucky data center and provide development capital while arranging long-term project financing. Shares are up about 12% after the announcement.
