Bitcoin drops 2% as oil prices surge on energy shortage fears

Bitcoin’s price has now fallen over four consecutive days to $66,272 after initially climbing on the US-Israel strikes on Iran.

Bitcoin fell nearly 2% in just 15 minutes on Sunday while oil prices rose almost 20% as the escalating Middle East conflict prompted fears of a major supply shortage in the global energy market.

Data from decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid shows oil prices rose from $95 to $113.7 per barrel shortly after US futures markets opened, as Iraq warned that roughly 3 million barrels per day of production could be disrupted due to Iranian threats against tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s the highest price oil has reached since April 2022, a few weeks after Russia commenced its invasion of Ukraine, TradingView data shows. 

The price of oil rose more than 30% last week after the US and Israel struck Iran, leading the war-torn nation to counterstrike against several of its Middle Eastern neighbors.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell from $66,960 to $65,725 by 10:30 pm UTC on Sunday as US futures markets opened before bouncing back up to $66,272 at the time of publication.

Hyperliquid data also shows that oil prices have cooled off to $105 per barrel.

Bitcoin climbed during the Middle Eastern conflict last week, which saw the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, rising from below $64,000 to $73,770 by Wednesday.

But since then, Bitcoin’s price has fallen over the last four consecutive days.

Despite the boom in oil prices, Trump expects the rapid rise in oil prices to be short-lived: 

“We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. They'll also come down. They'll come down very fast,” Trump told reporters on Saturday.

Related: Iranian crypto outflows spike 700% after US-Israeli airstrikes

Trump also shrugged off the idea that the US may need to tap its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stating:

“We’ve got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount,” said Trump. “There’s a lot of oil out there. That’ll get healed very quickly.”

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Source: CoinTelegraph