NEW YORK, March 13, 2026, 14:13 EDT
Bitcoin climbed close to $74,000 on Friday before pulling back to around $71,800 by midday in New York, as news of new U.S. military activity in the Middle East quickly erased much of the rally. Even with the drop, shares tied to crypto—Coinbase and Strategy among them—still closed higher in U.S. trading.
Bitcoin’s swing stands out, with the token acting like a macro proxy once more. Investors parsed January’s Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index—the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation metric—which landed right on expectations. Oil, meanwhile, held above $100 per barrel.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs picked up $53.8 million in net inflows on March 12, marking a fourth consecutive day in the green, according to Farside data. BlackRock’s IBIT was out in front, pulling in $46.1 million, while Fidelity’s FBTC brought in $15.3 million.
Gabe Selby, CF Benchmarks’ head of research, pointed to crypto’s nonstop trading as a growing advantage. With the Iran conflict flaring up over the weekend, he noted, “crypto-native markets were the only venue open for global risk trading.” Fortune
The U.S. Commerce Department reported a 0.3% uptick in the PCE index for January, with core PCE—excluding food and energy—up 0.4%. Fourth-quarter GDP got knocked down to 0.7%. “The inflation print doesn’t help the dovish case,” said James St. Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management. He pointed out that “the effects of skyrocketing energy prices are just starting.” Reuters
Bullish sentiment now runs into a wall with oil. Brent held over $102 on Friday—still no traffic through the Strait of Hormuz—after spiking to $119.50 earlier in the week. Goldman Sachs bumped its March Brent average above $100 a barrel. Persistent oil prices, Monica Guerra at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management notes, could keep the Fed “supporting a higher fed funds rate for longer.” Reuters
The back-and-forth was clear among publicly traded peers. Coinbase added close to 3%, while Strategy climbed 5% in early Friday moves, despite the wider U.S. stock market giving up earlier ground.
Jake Ostrovskis, who runs over-the-counter trading at market maker Wintermute, pointed to the oil spike and growth concerns as drivers behind some investors piling into bitcoin—speculating it might gain if governments roll out stimulus.
The rebound didn’t hold. Bitcoin surrendered a chunk of its gains as headlines from the Middle East surfaced—a quick reminder that the token’s role as a geopolitical risk barometer flares up whenever traders scramble for liquidity in the round-the-clock market.
Bitcoin is still trading comfortably above the $63,000 mark it touched following the Feb. 28 strikes on Iran. But on Friday, the $70,000 threshold looked volatile—oil prices, shifting rate bets, and ETF flows dominated sentiment, outmuscling any direct crypto headlines.
