Bitcoin can’t keep up with NASDAQ amid ongoing Iran-Israel conflict
The post Bitcoin can’t keep up with NASDAQ amid ongoing Iran-Israel conflict appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Although many crypto investors flee to bitcoin (BTC) as a safe haven, it hasn’t performed particularly well during times of war. Consider its underperformance against other tech investments during the onset of a conflict. Despite US President Donald Trump’s 53 assurances that the Russia-Ukraine war would end “on day one,” that conflict continues. Worse, a new war just started in Iran, giving us a recent example against which to analyze BTC as an ostensible safe haven asset. BTC often correlates with the NASDAQ-100 index, the largest proxy for the tech industry. However, many military headlines have driven BTC to decouple from the NASDAQ to the downside. On Monday, for example, Trump surprised the world with a sudden post to TruthSocial asking everyone in Tehran to evacuate immediately. That plea, made at 6:30pm New York time to a metro area of over 15 million people, immediately tanked NASDAQ-100 constituents in after-hours trading. The NASDAQ 100-tracking QQQ ETF, which had been trading north of $533.70 prior to the announcement, traded 0.15% lower within two minutes and 0.6% lower within 90 minutes. Those percentages aren’t to be mistaken as insignificant. For an index as large as the NASDAQ — which itself is tied to the largest economy in the world — a loss of 0.6% reflects a loss of approximately $300 billion in US public market capitalization. BTC, however, fared far worse during the same period. Prior to Trump’s announcement, BTC was trading above $108,700. Within 90 minutes, it had declined 1.8%. Indeed, BTC fell 3X further than the NASDAQ within 90 minutes of conflict breaking out. BTC is a digital asset, but it’s not digital gold especially when money flocks to safe haven assets. Israel strikes Iran, Gold rallies, BTC sells off. Nothing against BTC, just noting it’s not a safe haven…
