Bitcoin Rebounds Despite War Tensions — What Drove Crypto Markets This Week

This snapshot article gives readers a crypto market weekly recap, covering crypto prices, market sentiment, ETF flows, current and expected trends, as well as macroeconomic, geopolitical, or regulatory events that affected Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins in the past seven days.

The crypto market has seen a minor but important increase over the past seven days, following a series of pullbacks. Bitcoin recorded a slight rebound, following geopolitical volatility, specifically tensions in the Middle East. Shifting risk sentiment continued affecting market movements across Ethereum and major altcoins. Institutional outflows persist as the market sentiment remains in the extreme fear zone.

TL;DR

• Global crypto market cap rose less than 0.1% in a week;
• Bitcoin is up 2.22% over the past 7 days, trading at $67,248;
• Ethereum is up 2.11%, now standing at $1,997;
• The majority of the top 100 coins are down, but the increases overshadow the losses;
• Four major factors stand behind the crypto market movements;
• Geopolitical tension and macro uncertainty are putting significant pressure on prices;
• Regulatory developments and institutional adoption are bullish for crypto;
• Strategy continues accumulating Bitcoin, with a goal of 1.5 million BTC;
• The market sentiment increased but remained in the extreme fear zone;
• Both BTC and ETH spot ETFs posted a mixed picture last week;
• Morgan Stanley filed an updated registration for a spot Bitcoin ETF;
• US stocks ended the week lower.

Market performance this week

The global cryptocurrency market cap increased by 0.073% over the past 7 days. At the time of writing on Monday morning (UTC), it stands at $2.39 trillion. This is also a 1% rise in the last 24 hours.

Moreover, the highest point in this timeframe was $2.53 trillion seen on Thursday. 

This is a minor increase but a notable one, since that the market cap remains mostly red in other timeframes, including 14 days and 1 month.

In light of the recent series of market downturns, it’s too early to say whether this weekly trend will spread over other timeframes, but a possibility is there.

Meanwhile, both in the 7-day and 24-hour categories, the majority of the top 10 coins per market cap have posted price increases. Comparing the two categories, Ethereum comes out as a clear winner. It’s the only coin to appreciate more than 1% in both timeframes. 

Bitcoin price movements

Bitcoin is up 2.22% over the past 7 days, currently trading at $67,248. Compared to the coin’s rise during a bull run, this may not seem like a large change. However, it’s notable due to the recent string of decreases. 

Moreover, BTC is down 0.08% in the past day, meaning that it’s unchanged in this timeframe. It also fell 46.5% from its October all-time high of $126,080.

Bitcoin price chart. Source: TradingView

The Bitcoin price this week started at the $65,400 level. It gradually increased to the intraweek high of $73,669 on March 4, defying the overall market volatility. However, BTC has decreased back below $68,000 since. 

Now, market participants are looking to see if Bitcoin will be able to reclaim the $70,000 and keep it. This would open doors for further increases towards and potentially above the week’s high at the $73,700 level.

However, should the decreases resume, we could see BTC dipping below $65,000 and move towards $62,450.

Ethereum price movements

Ethereum is up 2.11% in the past week, now standing at the price of $1,997. ETH has been consistently one of the best performers among the top 100 coins and especially among the top 10.

Also, ETH price is up $1.15% in a day, making it the highest gainer among the top 10 in this timeframe. It is currently down 60% from the ATH of $4,946 recorded in August 2025.

ETH price chart. Source: TradingView

ETH price this week moved from the week’s low of $1,926 on March 2 to the intraweek high of $2,179 on March 4. Similarly to BTC, ETH was unable to hold that level for long and has returned towards the week’s lowest points.

If this mild bullish course continues, ETH will climb back over the $2,000 mark and will move towards the $2,120 level. It’s still uncertain whether or how long it would hold higher levels, given the general instability of factors affecting the market. 

If the course reverses, ETH would be in danger of pulling back towards $1,900 and $1,820, with the next stop being the $1,690 level.

Altcoin price movements

Altcoins have seen increases in both the 7-day and 24-hour timeframes. We’ll focus on their performance in the past week, where we find more substantial movements.

Looking at the top 10 coins per market cap, we can see that 5 appreciated in the past 7 days, while 3 are down (not taking the two stablecoins into consideration). 

The category’s best performers in this timeframe were tron (TRON) and Bitcoin. Both are by more than 2%. Tron leads the list with a 2.39% rise since last Monday. It currently trades at 0.2881.

At the same time, the highest drop since March 2 is cardano (ADA)’s 6.12%, now standing at $0.2539.

Source: coinmarketcap.com

Now, zooming out to observe the top 100 coins per market cap, we find that 43 went up over the past week. Though more coins were red, their drops were significantly lower. 

The best weekly performers were OKB (OKB) and pi network (PI), both recording significant double-digit jumps. OKB went up 29.2% to the price of $97.82, while PI appreciated 28.8% to $0.2157.

Three more coins posted double-digit gains in this period: kite (KITE), whitebit coin (WBT), and bittensor (TAO), having gone up 16%, 11%, and 10%, respectively. 

On the other hand, the highest drops among the top 100 in the past week were stable (STABLE), provenance blockchain (HASH), and official trump (TRUMP). These dropped between 12% and 20%.

Why did crypto market rise this week? Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins react to macro and geopolitical shocks

The crypto market increased largely due to four major factors that pushed and pulled the crypto market over the past seven days. These include war risks, macro uncertainty, regulatory progress, and institutional adoption.

Escalation of Middle East geopolitical tensions

The war in the Middle East has been one of the biggest volatility drivers in the crypto market. It is now day 10 of the America-Israel attacks on Iran. At the same time, Iran is attacking American bases in other countries. 

The traditional markets have been hit hard. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, for example, skyrocketed to $119.5. The crypto market didn’t escape the crisis. It saw significant short-term sell-offs in BTC and altcoins, as well as a rise in volatility across derivatives markets. BTC even dipped towards $63,000 before rebounding. Unsurprisingly, bitcoin ETF outflows increased again, coinciding with intensified geopolitical uncertainty.

But it’s many knockbacks over the years have strengthened the crypto market’s immune system, so to say. It tends to recover faster than traditional markets. This is likely why we’ve been seeing more green days over the past week, as the crypto market absorbed a lot of the geopolitical shock. However, the problem is that it may not have sufficient time to fully recover if shocks keep coming. This scenario would lead to a longer bear run.

David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, commented that markets moved in a more “benign” fashion than expected, taking into account the magnitude of the situation. “I think it’s gonna take a couple of weeks for markets to really digest the ​implications of what has happened both in the short term and medium term, and I can’t speculate as to how that would play out,” Solomon said. 

Ongoing macro uncertainty across global markets

Stronger USD and extreme fear sentiment among investors, in combination with rising oil prices and corporate margin concerns prompted by AI, have shaken the global macro outlook. 

Specifically in the crypto market, these have led to an increase in BTC and altcoins, a decrease in risk appetite, and a higher chance of liquidations. Overall, there is a general lack of clear direction, as shown by this week’s minor increase. 

Regulatory advances

Several beneficial regulatory developments have added up to help light more green candles in the crypto market over the past week. 

In Pakistan, the parliament has passed the Virtual Assets Act, 2026. With this, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) officially became as the country’s digital asset regulator. After a years-long pushback against the crypto market, Pakistan decided to regulate crypto as legal tender in 2024. It then announced a bitcoin strategic reserve, as well as a BTC mining strategy.

In the US, the White House nominated pro‑bitcoin Kevin Warsh for the Federal Reserve Chair. And in Russia, the central bank has proposed to let banks and brokers run crypto exchanges under existing licenses. This would allow major national banks to offer bitcoin and crypto services. 

Also, banks across the United States are ramping up preparations for a new era of cryptocurrency oversight as regulators, financial institutions, and compliance teams increasingly focus on monitoring risks tied to digital assets.

BTC accumulation continues

Despite a fall in bitcoin exchange-traded fund flows, investments did not stop. Some companies have continued their accumulation strategies, taking advantage of the lower prices. This is despite the overall loss on investment due to the current price drop, as these companies are betting that BTC will reach new ATHs.

For example, Strategy recently bought another 3,015 BTC (worth $204.1 million), bringing its total holdings to 720,737 BTC. What’s more, the company’s head, Michael Saylor, said that they plan to acquire up to 1.5 million BTC.

Market sentiment sits in extreme fear

The crypto market sentiment has seen a small increase compared to last Monday. The crypto fear and greed index now stands at 19, having risen from 15 seen a week ago. 

Despite the rise, the metric was unable to exit the extreme fear zone. That said, it was able to briefly jump to 25 and into the fear zone upon the market’s brief overall increase on March 4.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Nonetheless, the market sentiment has been deep in the red since late January this year. At one point in early February, it dropped to 5, which is the level not seen since CoinMarketCap began tracking this metric in mid-2023. 

This latest rise in sentiment is unsurprising given the slight market recovery. Market participants may be somewhat more confident, at least temporarily, but fear is still driving the market. The low number and the extreme-fear-zone status reflect a high level of concern among market participants, and it will be interesting to see where it will go from here.

Institutional flows: Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs

The US BTC spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) closed their last session of the week with an outflow, letting go of $348.83 million on Friday. The total net inflow pulled back to the current $55.37 billion.

Seven of the twelve ETFs posted negative flows, and none saw inflows. BlackRock let go of $143.45 million on March 6. Fidelity recorded outflows of $158.54 million, followed by Bitwise’s $22.17 million. 

Source: SoSoValue

Over the past week, the first three trading days posted inflows between $224 million and 461 million a day. The streak was broken with $227.83 million in negative flows on Thursday.

Additionally, the US ETH ETFs saw outflows on Friday as well, letting go of $82.85 million. The total net inflow decreased to $11.63 billion.

Of the nine funds, five posted negative flows, and none saw inflows. Fidelity recorded outflows of $67.57 million, followed by Grayscale’s $6 million and BlackRock’s $4.78 million.

Source: SoSoValue

Over the past week, ETH ETFs posted two days of inflows and three of outflows. It started the week in green, with a positive flow of $38.69 million, while its highest inflow for the week was Wednesday’s $169.41 million. At the same time, the highest outflow was $90.94 million on Thursday.

Meanwhile, on March 4, Morgan Stanley filed an updated amendment to its registration form with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a spot Bitcoin ETF. Coinbase Custody’s offline cold storage infrastructure will secure Bitcoin holdings, and BNY Mellon will manage cash assets. The move signals the persistent interest of Wall Street veterans to enter the crypto space after years of calling for its fall.

US stocks end the week lower

The US stock market closed the Friday session and the week sharply lower, for a second straight week. 

By the end of trading on 6 February, the S&P 500 was down 1.33%, the Nasdaq-100 decreased by 1.51%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.95%. 

Investors weighed a weak jobs report, following the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment reading that showed a loss of 92,000 jobs in February. 

Moreover, oil prices surged on Thursday after Iran’s claims of an attack on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and the US president saying that there will be no deal between the US and Iran. 

The developments have affected the Friday trading session and are expected to continue doing so this week as well.

Editor’s notes

The crypto market has noted a very small but still relevant rise. As it appears in quite a bearish period, where it’s continuously being hit with geopolitical and macro shocks, the increase is a positive signal. However, further increases are not guaranteed. It’s not clear whether a bull has started walking, let alone running. Given that the impacts will keep coming, it remains to be seen how fast the market will be able to absorb them. One major factor going in crypto’s favor is its resilience. So it’s not a matter of if the crypto market will recover, but when.