(April 22): Bitcoin jumped along with equities on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran, bolstering market confidence.
The original cryptocurrency rose as much as 2.7%, trading around US$77,500 at 1pm in Singapore. It was the highest price since Friday, when the token touched a two-month high of US$78,344. Other cryptoassets also advanced, with Ether up as much as 2.8%.
“BTC’s near-term direction remains highly dependent on developments in the macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape,” said Paul Howard, senior director at market maker Wincent. “In the absence of a clear external catalyst, traders focused on positioning around low-volatility conditions are likely to view the US$72,000 area as a key support zone, with upside constrained by a potential resistance and profit-taking ceiling around US$79,000.”
Contracts for the S&P 500 Index were also up by more than 0.5% while Brent crude slipped slightly, fluctuating around US$98 a barrel.
Bitcoin has weathered the war with Iran better than many assets, including the traditional safe haven of gold. Bullion is down roughly 10% since Feb 27 while bitcoin is up more than 15% over the same period.
See also: Strategy buys US$2.54 bil of bitcoin, most since late 2024
“Crypto has been in a bullish mood in the past few weeks, often shrugging off bad news and climbing on good news,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets. “The US$75,000 level should hold as solid support from here and a clean break above US$80,000 would unlock significant further upside.”
Since the outbreak of the war at the end of February, bitcoin has largely traded between US$65,000 and US$75,000. The holding pattern has been a reprieve from months of declines that have seen the token shed roughly 40% of its value from its US$126,000 high in October, when a sharp selloff sent crypto markets spiralling.
In recent weeks, inflows have returned to US-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. The 13 funds have seen more than US$250 million in net inflows so far this week, after investors poured US$996.4 million into the funds last week.
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