Bitcoin bounced from early-week lows as falling oil prices helped lift global risk sentiment, with Asian stocks advancing and crude retreating from recent highs.
The leading cryptocurrency rose roughly 7% from Monday’s low near $66,000, climbing to as high as $71,612 late Tuesday before easing back to around $70,036 during Wednesday’s Asian trading hours.
The rebound followed a sharp drop in energy prices. Brent Crude slipped below $90 per barrel on Wednesday — its first time under that level since the Middle East conflict began — after plunging about 11% in the previous session.
A report from The Wall Street Journal said the International Energy Agency is considering the largest coordinated crude reserve release in its history. The proposal would surpass the 182 million barrels released in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The potential move aims to offset supply disruptions caused by production cuts in the Persian Gulf, which have removed around 6% of global oil output since the conflict involving Iran escalated. The cuts had driven sharp increases in global fuel prices, including jet fuel and cooking gas.
Oil prices have been a key channel through which the Middle East conflict has affected global financial markets. Higher crude prices tend to intensify inflation pressures, which can delay interest-rate cuts and tighten liquidity — developments that typically weigh on risk assets like cryptocurrencies.
With oil prices now easing, some of those pressures have softened.
Bitcoin was trading near $70,036 on Wednesday morning, up about 2.5% on the week. The move from Monday’s low near $66,000 to Tuesday’s high represented roughly an 8.5% rally in two days, although prices pulled back slightly overnight.
“Bitcoin trading above $70,000 indicates buyers are attempting to push the market out of its consolidation phase, but it still needs to prove it can maintain that level,” said Daniel Reis-Faria, CEO of ZeroStack.
Reis-Faria noted that leverage had cooled prior to the rally, which may provide a more stable backdrop for the recent move higher.
“The key question now is whether bitcoin can stay above $70,000 and build from there, or if it slips back into the same range we’ve seen for several weeks,” he added.
Analysts at FxPro also pointed out that bitcoin has been forming a series of higher local lows since late February, which could signal growing buyer confidence within the current range.
However, they highlighted $73,000 as an important resistance level where last week’s peak coincides with the 50-day moving average.
The broader crypto market showed limited movement. Ethereum traded near $2,034, down 0.3% on the day but still up about 2.8% over the past week. BNB held steady around $643.
XRP edged up 0.3% to $1.38, extending its weekly gain to roughly 1.7%, while Solana rose 0.2% to $86.42 but remained down 0.8% over the past seven days, making it the weakest performer among major tokens during that period.
Dogecoin gained about 1% to $0.093, holding onto part of Tuesday’s rally that followed comments from Elon Musk.
Investors are now looking ahead to the upcoming policy meeting of the Federal Reserve scheduled for March 17–18. If crude prices remain below $90 following the IEA’s proposed reserve release, concerns about a stagflation scenario that weighed on markets last week could begin to ease.
Bitcoin’s 90-day correlation with the S&P 500 remains elevated at around 0.78, indicating the cryptocurrency continues to trade closely with broader risk markets — meaning any signals from the Fed could quickly ripple across the crypto sector.
