Bitcoin is on track to close its strongest week since September 2025, up around 8.5% and trading above $71,000.
This decision stands out compared to other major assets.
Over the past week, Bitcoin has started to deviate slightly from the broader market. Using BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as a five-day indicator, IBIT is up about 3.5% and neared a one-month high on Friday.
In contrast, the iShares Expanded Tech Software ETF (IGV), gold, and U.S. stocks all trended lower as the week progressed. This suggests that Bitcoin is starting to lose its strong correlation with software and technology, at least in the short term.
The divergence comes as Bitcoin begins to diverge from its traditional counterparts. Since the start of the conflict in the Middle East more than two weeks ago, bitcoin has gained around 13%, outperforming both traditional risk assets and safe havens. During the same period, IGV rose around 3%, while gold fell around 6% and US stocks also posted losses.
On a monthly basis, the asset is up about 7% so far in March, which would mark its first positive month since September. This rebound follows five consecutive negative months in which bitcoin fell as much as 50% from its all-time high in October.
The buyers of the largest digital asset appear to be the United States, as institutional demand from the region appears to be gradually returning. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have seen about $1.3 billion in net inflows in March so far, putting them on track for their first month of net inflows since October.
However, this divergence does not mean that Bitcoin is completely out of the woods.
Market sentiment remains extremely cautious. The Cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index remained in “extreme fear” territory. At the same time, perpetual futures funding rates remain negative. Funding rates are periodic payments exchanged between traders in perpetual futures markets to keep contract prices aligned with the spot market. When funding rates are negative, short sellers pay for long positions, indicating that bearish positioning is dominant and traders are willing to pay to maintain a short exposure.
While this doesn’t mean Bitcoin is ready to take off, it does show that investors no longer view it as a purely risky asset.
As CoinDesk’s analysis showed, the move could simply mean that Bitcoin has potentially become a 24/7 leading indicator for how the overall market might trade in response to a macro event. The Middle East conflict is the perfect example of this, as the price moved ahead of any other asset class when the war started. And now it seems that everything else is following the price action, while Bitcoin remains stable.
Read more: Bitcoin’s Recent Crash to $60,000 First Warned Stocks – Now They’re Following
