By Hana Yamamoto
Bitcoin staged a marked recovery on Friday, advancing beyond the $64,000 mark and putting the world's largest cryptocurrency back on track for a weekly increase. Traders appeared to look past recent geopolitical jitters as a rally in technology equities helped lift risk appetite across global markets.
By 02:35 ET (06:35 GMT) the cryptocurrency was trading 1.5% higher at $63,900.8, having earlier in the session climbed to $64,177.1. The move left bitcoin poised to finish the week about 2% higher after earlier declines tied to rising military tensions between the U.S. and Iran had prompted investors to seek safe-haven assets.
Market backdrop and drivers
Sentiment improved following comments from U.S. President Donald Trump indicating that Iran had reached out seeking a deal, a development that helped ease immediate concerns about a broader regional conflict. At the same time, crude oil prices retreated from recent highs, removing one source of upward pressure on risk premia.
The cryptocurrency's rebound broadly tracked gains on Wall Street, where technology stocks led a broad-based rally. The Nasdaq rose more than 1% on Thursday, reflecting renewed demand for growth-oriented assets and supporting high-beta instruments, including bitcoin.
Market participants remained attentive to the ongoing narrative surrounding the U.S.-Iran situation. Earlier in the week, President Trump had declared that the interim understanding with Tehran was over following renewed hostilities, before later indicating Iran had reached out to negotiate - a sequence of remarks that contributed to swings in market sentiment.
Institutional flows and positioning
Investors and analysts noted that continued inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been an important factor underpinning prices this year. Those inflows have helped absorb episodes of macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical volatility, according to market commentary cited by traders.
Analysts also emphasized that bitcoin is behaving like a high-beta risk asset, often moving in step with equities when market sentiment improves. As such, a sustained easing of geopolitical tensions combined with persistent demand for technology stocks could provide additional tailwinds for cryptocurrencies.
Altcoin performance
Most major altcoins gained ground on Thursday, following bitcoin's recovery. Ethereum, the world's number-two cryptocurrency, rose 1.1% to $1,773.92. XRP added 0.6% to $1.105. Solana increased by 0.6%, while Cardano bucked the broader uplift and slipped 2%. Among meme tokens, Dogecoin climbed 1.4%.
Traders noted that the cross-market correlation between cryptocurrencies and risk assets meant altcoins often mirrored bitcoin's directional moves, although individual token performance continued to diverge at times.
Outlook
While the late-week rebound has restored some weekly gains for bitcoin, market participants maintained a degree of caution. Continued developments in the U.S.-Iran relationship and flows into institutional bitcoin products were cited as key variables that could influence near-term price action.
For now, the combination of fading immediate geopolitical fears, a retreat in oil prices, and strength in technology stocks has been sufficient to lift bitcoin and many of its peers into positive territory for the week.