Bitcoin surged to a ten-week high near $77,000, fueled by geopolitical developments including a ceasefire announcement between Israel and Lebanon and the reported reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran. The cryptocurrency’s market cap climbed above $1.540 trillion as its dominance over alternative coins rose to over 57%. While major altcoins like Ethereum and XRP saw weekly gains, the RaveDAO’s RAVE token dramatically outperformed, posting a 1,500% weekly surge.
Geopolitical events drove significant volatility in Bitcoin markets over the past week. Market data shows BTC initially corrected to approximately $70,500 after failed Iran-U.S. peace talks, then rallied to over $76,000 on renewed diplomatic hope. The asset’s climb continued after former U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, and again after he stated Iran had reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Bitcoin’s market dominance increased to over 57% as its price reached nearly $77,000. Larger-cap alternative cryptocurrencies also registered weekly gains, with Ethereum up 6%, XRP up 8%, and Dogecoin rising 6.5%.
The standout performer was the RAVE token from RaveDAO, which soared 1,500% in a week and 7,000% monthly. In contrast, ZEC dropped more than 12% weekly, followed by declines for TAO, RAIN, and CC.
In corporate news, Strategy spent over $1 billion to accumulate nearly 14,000 BTC, bringing its total holdings close to 781,000 coins. BitMine Immersion Technologies increased its Ethereum holdings to 4.875 million tokens, owning over 4% of ETH’s total supply. Separately, legacy exchange giant Deutsche Börse acquired a $200 million stake in Kraken‘s parent company, Payward Inc.
On the development front, Bitcoin developers proposed BIP-361 to address potential future quantum computing threats. The proposed update aims to freeze legacy addresses deemed vulnerable. Analysts like Arthur Hayes have outlined how bitcoin might perform under four different permanent outcomes of the Iran conflict.
