Bitcoin, currently valued at $BTC $71,859.13, is experiencing a surge in early U.S. trading on Friday. This marks a significant rebound after months of lagging behind other assets such as stocks and precious metals.
With its price now at $73,800, Bitcoin has seen an increase of nearly 5% within the last 24 hours. Much of this rise followed comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday evening regarding the Trump administration’s proactive measures to address escalating oil prices.
Since the onset of the conflict in Iran, Bitcoin has appreciated by approximately 11%, outperforming major U.S. stock indices and gold—both of which have declined since military actions began about two weeks ago.
This Friday, WTI crude oil is priced at $94.50 per barrel after peaking near $98 on Thursday. Meanwhile, U.S. equities are showing gains around 0.5%.
The Threat of Stagflation
The recent surge in oil prices is exerting pressure on household finances and could potentially dampen consumer spending and hinder economic growth if it persists, according to Olu Sonola from Fitch Ratings.
“While overall economic growth remains expected to follow trends,” he noted in a report, “this outlook appears increasingly precarious as risks mount… The Federal Reserve may overlook certain areas of weakening growth; however, rising inflation significantly constrains its options for policy adjustments.”
A Bounce Back?
Following one of Bitcoin’s most challenging sentiment periods ever recorded, it’s not surprising that we are witnessing some modest recovery recently.
K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde highlighted that perpetual futures traders have maintained negative funding positions for an extended period since late 2022—a time coinciding with the aftermath of the FTX collapse when $BTC‘s value plummeted from around $69K to approximately $16K.
Lunde pointed out that the average funding rate over thirty days has remained negative for fourteen consecutive days—the longest streak since December 2022—often aligning with local price lows during this seven-year span.
In addition to these developments, open interest in both perpetual and dated futures contracts for Bitcoin surged by 9% over the past day to roughly 700K $BTC, marking its highest level since February 6th—a scenario conducive to potential short squeezes ahead.
Bitcoin alongside instances with negative thirty-day average perpetual funding rates (K33 Research)
A Promising Friday?
The day isn’t finished yet; however it appears poised to be Bitcoin’s first gain on a Friday since hostilities erupted in the Middle East starting February 27th—hinting at possibly calmer weekends ahead for cryptocurrencies which have tended towards declines during Saturdays and Sundays lately.
This March seems promising for Bitcoin as well; thus far this month it has risen about eight percent—a positive sign early into March that could potentially end BTC’s five-month streak without gains if this trend continues!