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Here's why bitcoin climbed through $71,000

Your day-ahead look for March 4, 2026

By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback Mar 4, 2026, 12:15 p.m.

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A space shuttle takes off on the back of a rocket. (WikiImages/Pixabay) — Bitcoin rocketed above $71,000 (WikiImages/Pixabay modified by CoinDesk)

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By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

Bitcoin BTC$70,787.31 rose to just short of $72,000, hitting a one-month high and lifting the broader crypto market even as the war in the Middle East wreaks havoc on traditional markets.

The outperformance stems from several factors, including relative positioning, rising odds of the passage of the U.S.'s long‑debated Clarity Act aimed at legalizing stablecoins and hopes that conflict with Iran will end soon.

Bitcoin, down nearly 50% from its record high in October, was oversold before hostilities began Saturday. So as traditional assets tumbled, BTC held up well. That has likely revived investor interest in the largest cryptocurrency, drawing institutions back to the spot ETFs.

As noted on Monday, bitcoin stands to gain because the war will only worsen government finances worldwide, leading to more "fiat debasement."

Meanwhile, the New York Times put out an interesting report that likely aided the price bounce, according to Bloomberg. The report said that the day after the attacks began, operatives from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence contacted the CIA to discuss terms for ending the war. While the U.S. ignored the overture, the outreach suggests backchannels are still active and could be used again, potentially leading to a ceasefire.

Lastly, there's the possibility the Clarity Act could be passed soon.

"There was speculation circulating in the U.S. that the Clarity Act was close to being signed into law. This helped lift many altcoins relative to major assets, as they are expected to be among the biggest long-term beneficiaries of the legislation," Paul Howard, director at trading firm Wincent, said in an email.

However, he added that there is currently no strong evidence that a large pool of sidelined money is waiting to flood into digital assets, and any rotation is still relatively small or gradual.

Looking ahead, traders expect volatility to persist, particularly if the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil-supply chokepoint, remains closed and oil prices continue to surge.

"We expect continued volatility, but if the disruption persists, pressure to reopen Hormuz is likely to build. Bitcoin has held up better than broader risk, and bears watching as an early signal of stabilizing sentiment," QCP Capital's market insight team said. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today

What to Watch

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Crypto
- March 4: Qubic begins testing parallel dogecoin mining and AI training
Macro
- March 4, 8:15 a.m.: U.S. ADP employment change for February (Prev. 22K)
- March 4, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. ISM services PMI for February (Prev. 53.8)
- March 4, 2:00 p.m.: U.S. Fed Beige Book
Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
- Nothing scheduled.

Token Events

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Governance votes & calls
- Uniswap DAO is voting across two linked proposals to expand v2 and v3 protocol fees to eight layer-2 networks and enable a new tier-based fee system across all v3 pools. Voting ends March 4 & 5.
- ENS DAO is voting to replace three DNSSEC oracle algorithms to patch a critical RSA signature forgery vulnerability and significantly reduce gas costs. Voting ends March 4.
Unlocks
- No major unlocks.
Token Launches
- March 4: Block Street (BSB) to list on Binance Alpha, Bybit, others.

Conferences

For a more comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead".

Day 1 of 3: Quant 2026 (Varese, Italy)

Market Movements

BTC is up 4.49% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $71,283.58 (24hrs: +6.65%)
ETH is up 5.19% at $2,068.65 (24hrs: +5.64%)
CoinDesk 20 is up 4.31% at 3,086.55 (24hrs: +5.45%)
Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is down 1 bps at 2.85%
BTC funding rate is at 0.0051% (5.6119% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.25% at 98.81
Gold futures are up 1.70% at $5,194.10
Silver futures are up 4.00% at $86.24
Nikkei 225 closed down 3.61% at 54,245.54
Hang Seng closed down 2.01% at 25,249.48
FTSE 100 is up 0.18% at 10,502.97
Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.70% at 5,812.08
DJIA closed on Tuesday down 0.83% at 48,501.27
S&P 500 closed down 0.94% at 6,816.63
Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.02% at 22,516.69
S&P/TSX Composite closed down 2.19% at 33,784.90
S&P 40 Latin America closed down 4.95% at 3,539.33
U.S. 10-Year Treasury rate is up 1 bps at 4.06%
E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,825.00
E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are unchanged at 24,762.00
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 0.12% at 48,501.00

Bitcoin Stats

BTC Dominance: 59.61% (+0.81%)
Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.02909 (0.26%)
Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 1,025 EH/s
Hashprice (spot): $31.26
Total fees: 2.71 BTC / $183,733
CME Futures Open Interest: 101,620 BTC
BTC priced in gold: 13.7 oz.
BTC vs gold market cap: 4.77%

Technical Analysis

BTC's weekly price swings in candlestick format. (TradingView) — BTC's weekly chart in candlestick format. (TradingView)

The chart shows bitcoin's weekly price swings in candlestick format from early 2024.
The bounce above $71,000 has renewed focus on the $74,000 level, which acted as resistance, an area where buyers tapped out in March 2024 and later as support, where selling stalled last April.
This level, therefore, represents an area of significant historical economic activity and could now serve as a key inflection zone: A break and hold above $74,000 may open the door to a push toward higher levels, while repeated failure there could reignite selling pressure.

Crypto Equities

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed on Tuesday at $182.36 (–1.55%), +6.66% at $194.51 in pre-market
Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $20.68 (–4.83%), +4.01% at $21.51
MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $8.66 (–8.36%), +6.47% at $9.22
Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $15.29 (–6.94%), +3.53% at $15.83
Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $15.30 (–7.22%), +2.55% at $15.69
CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.89 (–6.26%), +4.25% at $10.31
Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $10.83 (+3.44%), +0.65% at $10.90
CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI): closed at $37.88 (–6.31%), +4.67% at $39.65
Circle Internet Group (CRCL): closed at $99.63 (+3.63%), +6.15% at $105.76
Bullish (BLSH): closed at $33.12 (–2.04%), +2.93% at $34.09

Crypto Treasury Companies

Strategy (MSTR): closed at $132.68 (–3.61%), +7.70% at $142.89
Upexi (UPXI): closed at $0.79 (–10.80%), +14.65% at $0.90
Lite Strategy (LITS): closed at $1.15 (+2.68%)
Sharplink (SBET): closed at $7.26 (–1.76%), +4.68% at $7.60

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

Daily net flows: $225.2 million
Cumulative net flows: $55.47 billion
Total BTC holdings ~1.28 million

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flows: -$10.8 million
Cumulative net flows: $11.66 billion
Total ETH holdings ~5.71 million

Source: Farside Investors

While You Were Sleeping

The Iran war is dialing U.S. economic danger up to 11 (Bloomberg): President Trump’s extraordinary gamble in attacking Iran and risking a wider conflagration in the Middle East dials up the economic hazards facing the U.S. economy from “very high” to “extreme.”
Oil shock fear hits Asian tech stocks while European selloff pauses (Reuters): Selling in hard-hit European shares paused as the focus shifted to Asia, including a record-breaking crash in Seoul caused by fears the broadening Middle East war will create an oil-price shock, raising inflation and delaying interest-rate cuts.
Trump urges passage of U.S. Clarity Act, attacks banks for 'undercutting' GENIUS (CoinDesk): Trump said: “We are not going to allow them (banks) to undermine our powerful Crypto Agenda that will end up going to China, and other Countries if we don’t get The Clarity Act taken care of.”
Kraken becomes first crypto firm to win access to Fed’s core payments system (The Wall Street Journal): Kraken said its banking unit won access to the Federal Reserve’s core payment systems, making it the first crypto firm to be able to move money on the same rails used by thousands of banks and credit unions.

Crypto Daybook Americas

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