Crypto remains resilient in face of renewed Middle East tensions

Bitcoin rose 1.2% to $63,000 by Thursday, with ether gaining 0.75% to $1,755. The moves tracked a 2.6% gain in Nasdaq 100 futures over the past 24 hours.

The rally came after U.S. Central Command said it struck 90 military targets in the latest round of airstrikes. President Donald Trump had declared the ceasefire over a day earlier. Markets initially sold off on the escalation. Crypto recovered quickly from oversold levels.

Bitcoin now sits 9% above its June monthly close. A handful of altcoins have outperformed over the same period. Lighter (LIT) and ether.fi (ETHFI) each surged roughly 35%.

Stablecoin market capitalization fell to $312 billion in June. That was the largest monthly drop since the TerraUSD collapse in 2022. Tokenized equity volumes jumped 145% to a record $3.86 billion over the same period, data show.

The stablecoin contraction and the tokenized equity surge occurred in the same month. The data suggest a shift in on-chain capital allocation. The record $3.86 billion in tokenized equity trading points to growing institutional interest in blockchain-based securities.

Through Thursday's close, bitcoin has held above $60,000 support and is testing the $63,000 level. The next catalyst for crypto markets could be the resolution of Middle East tensions or further U.S. economic data.