Bitcoin Dips as Israel Launches Airstrikes on Iran

Bitcoin fell more than 4% late Thursday after Israel launched airstrikes against targets in Iran, escalating tensions in the Middle East and prompting a broad selloff across risk assets.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped to $103,556, down from a 24-hour high of $108,500, according to CoinGecko data.

Israel confirmed the strikes targeted Iranian military infrastructure near Tehran and Tabriz, in what it described as a “preemptive response” to growing threats.

In a press briefing on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled Iran's nuclear ambitions a "clear and present danger," saying the preemptive response would "continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat."

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: "For years, Iran has been promoting terrorism directly and indirectly against the State of Israel, funding and directing terrorist operations through its proxies across the Middle East, while advancing toward nuclear weapons."

"Iran today is closer than ever to acquiring nuclear weapons. A weapon of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranian regime poses an existential threat to the State of Israel and a significant threat to the entire world," the IDF added.

Iran has not yet issued a formal response, but state media reported explosions and disruptions to air traffic in affected areas.

The move comes days after a high-level meeting between Israeli defense officials and U.S. counterparts. Washington has not commented on the attack but said it was monitoring the situation closely.

"The latest Israel–Iran escalation is rattling risk assets and the Oil market, but we’ve seen this movie before," Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, told Decrypt.

"Previous flashpoints—including the April 2024 strikes—triggered weekend sell-offs across crypto, only to reverse sharply once the situation de-escalated. Those moments turned out to be great buying opportunities," he added.

The latest flare-up has sparked renewed debate among investors over whether geopolitical shocks like these warrant longer-term adjustments in positioning or if they merely create temporary dislocations in otherwise resilient markets.

"Typically, these conflicts tend to be short-lived, as there is too much at stake for the region to escalate into a much wider and more protracted conflict involving multiple parties," Kelvin Koh, co-founder and CIO at Spartan Capital, told Decrypt.

"We believe the market correction presents a good buying opportunity for risk assets that have strong fundamentals but have sold off hard as a result of the turmoil," he added.

Jamie Coutts, chief crypto analyst at Real Vision, agreed, adding that Bitcoin continues to behave as a risk-on, risk-off asset among short-term traders, but noted that institutional allocators are increasingly shaping its medium to long-term direction.

"That's why short term it can move with risk assets but long term outperform gold," he said.

Gold rose 1.7% to $2,414 an ounce, while U.S. futures pointed lower as investors weighed the risk of a broader regional conflict.