Bitcoin’s price has been a rollercoaster this year, mostly bouncing between $60,000 and $75,000. It keeps hinting at a big jump, but it just hasn’t happened. Even though it’s doing better than stocks and gold since the Iran conflict started, that just shows how much it had fallen. The digital currency is still down over 40% from its high point in October.
On Monday, Bitcoin saw a brief rise of 3.6%, hitting around $73,600 before settling back down. This kind of rally has become a common sight: a quick gain, then it fizzles out. Meanwhile, oil, metals, and other basic goods are seeing all the action.
Jasper De Maere, a crypto trader at Wintermute, explained the pattern. “The market goes up a bit, more people bet on it, and then we see a quick climb,” he said. He also pointed out that there’s less trading happening now compared to late 2025, when Bitcoin was steady between $85,000 and $95,000. Less trading means bigger price swings.
Bitcoin began its long slide in October, just days after hitting a record above $126,000. A massive $19 billion in crypto bets evaporated on October 10th. Since then, prices have slowly dropped, and every bounce-back has lacked real power.
Andreja Cobeljic, head of derivatives trading at AMINA Bank, noted this pattern is common in crypto downturns: a big drop, a 20% recovery, then a standstill. “We just don’t have enough push to break out,” he stated.
In contrast, traditional assets have soared. Crude oil jumped almost 70% after the US-Israel-Iran tensions, going from $70 to $120 a barrel before settling near $100. Aluminum is almost at record highs. Gold has stayed pretty flat since the Iran attacks, but it had a huge 65% rally last year while Bitcoin was falling.
This all points to a big shift: people are moving their money into physical assets, leaving digital currencies behind. Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer at Carlyle Energy Pathways, compared it to the commodity boom after the dot-com bust. He called that time “the revenge of the old economy.” Now, he advises holding “HALO assets”—heavy assets, low obsolescence. “I want to own metal, I want to own gold, I want to own oil,” he told Bloomberg TV.
