Crypto opened flat on Monday. Bitcoin traded near $59,700, down 0.3% for the day and 6.8% for the week, as the de-escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict sent stock futures higher but left digital assets unchanged, according to CoinDesk data.
Ether edged up 0.3% to $1,572, Solana added 1.5%, while XRP and dogecoin continued to fall.
Axios reported Sunday that the United States and Iran had agreed to stop strikes altogether and meet this week in Qatar to resume negotiations on the Strait of Hormuz and end the conflict more broadly. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5% on Monday, but crypto didn’t follow.
This lack of reaction corresponds to the pattern of the last two weeks. Bitcoin jumped on the peace deal signed on June 19, then gave it back as hawkish exits from the Fed and ETF reasserted themselves. Traders have now been burned by enough geopolitical bounces that the Qatar meeting is seen as a maybe rather than a catalyst.
South Korea has announced plans to double its DRAM production capacity in the Seoul metropolitan area over five years, with Samsung and SK Hynix committing 800 trillion won, or about $518 billion, to build four new manufacturing plants.
Asian tech hardware stocks fell during the rotation, even as eight of 11 MSCI Asia-Pacific subgroups advanced. The same AI chip trade that shook markets last week remains the dominant trend among assets.
The test for crypto this week is whether the Iran negotiations in Qatar produce anything lasting and whether Thursday’s PCE numbers will soften enough to change the Fed’s narrative. Both need to land to give bitcoin a reason to move.
