Bitcoin held above $76,000 on Monday, rebounding from overnight lows as the broader crypto market remained steady despite war risks in Iran.
The largest cryptocurrency rose about 2.4% over the past 24 hours, recovering from a dip below $74,000 earlier in the session. Ether (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL) and other major altcoins also mirrored bitcoin’s move as the broad market CoinDesk 20 rose 1.7%.
That resilience comes against a shaky macro backdrop. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that US forces had fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship and warned of further escalation as Tehran refuses to strike a deal. A fragile ceasefire is set to expire later this week.
Oil prices rose 6% to near $90, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped modestly around 0.3%-0.4%.
Crypto stocks were mixed. Coinbase (COIN) and bitcoin treasury Strategy (MSTR) rose around 2%, while Circle (CRCL) and ether treasury Bitmine (BMNR) fell 1%-2%.
“The fact that prices have not fully recovered despite new tensions suggests some real demand,” said Jasper De Maere, trader at Wintermute, pointing to recent spot ETF inflows as a supporting factor. Unlike previous rallies this year, he said, the current move appears to be less driven by leverage.
That said, the way forward remains tied to geopolitics. A renewed truce could push bitcoin back towards $80,000, while further escalation could keep markets under pressure.
For now, capital continues to concentrate in large-cap assets like bitcoin, De Maere noted, with riskier altcoins lagging, a pattern typical of market environments driven by macro headlines.
DeFi rolls from $292 million KelpDAO hack
Elsewhere from the current price action, tensions remain high in the DeFi sector following the biggest crypto exploit of the year.
The $292 million KelpDAO hack toppled the market when a vulnerability allowed the attacker to drain funds that were then used as collateral across lending protocols.
Because these assets were largely integrated into DeFi, the impact spread quickly, with users rushing to withdraw money due to fears of bad debt and contagion.
Total value locked (TVL) across DeFi protocols fell by $14 billion over the past two days, according to DefiLlama data, even as asset prices remained stable.
DeFi TVL fell to around $85 billion, a one-year low and around 50% below October peaks. Aave, the largest lending protocol central to the exploit, saw around $10 billion in deposits withdrawn.
“There is a huge risk-reward imbalance in DeFi,” said David Shuttleworth of Anchorage Digital’s protocol team. “Users will no longer accept the slightly higher (and sometimes lower) than risk-free rate they get by depositing into lending pools,” especially given the recent spate of cross-protocol exploits.
Read more: ‘DeFi is dead’: crypto community scrambles after year’s biggest hack exposes contagion risk
