The dollar is pressuring crypto after the escalation of the situation in Iran. The DXY index rose 0.5% to its highest since January following Israeli strikes on Tehran and Beirut, plus a drone attack on the US embassy in Riyadh. All risk assets fell together — stocks, metals, crypto. Here’s what happened in the market.

Bitcoin rose to 70,000 on a panic wave (as usual, correlating with gold), but then pulled back to 66,500 and remains in a sideways range since February. The current price is around 73.98K. Altcoins reacted worse — ADA dropped 1%, ZEC 3%, DASH nearly 5%. NEAR jumped 13% after being oversold, but that’s an exception. The rest are in the red.

On derivatives markets, it’s interesting — liquidations over the past 24 hours totaled $392 million (equally longs and shorts). Open interest in BTC futures stabilized at $15.3 billion after clearing leverage. The options market is shifting from panic to bullish sentiment — call options dominate 63 to 37. Implied volatility across maturities has moved into contango: short-term fear has decreased, but the medium-term remains bullish.

DeFi tokens JUP and MORPHO are holding steady — up 23% and 1% over the week. XRP is also in the green amid high volume and whale accumulation, although the overall altcoin trend remains bearish since October. PEPE, ATOM, SHIB, BCH are all down for the week.

What to do? The market is seeking balance. Retail investors are cautiously bullish, institutions have slightly retreated. Pressure has eased, but uncertainty remains. The key level to watch is 69,800 for BTC. Crypto is still in consolidation mode until geopolitics decides where to go next.