Bitcoin Breaks Higher as Easing Oil Prices Lift Markets
Crypto markets and U.S. equities advanced at the start of the week as cooling tensions around the Strait of Hormuz helped drive oil prices lower and improve investor sentiment.
Bitcoin surged above $74,000, reaching an intraday high of $74,500 during U.S. trading—its strongest level since early February—and rising 3.9% over the past 24 hours. The breakout from a six-week range has boosted confidence across the digital asset market, encouraging flows into smaller and riskier tokens.
U.S. equity markets also moved higher, with the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 each gaining more than 1% in morning trade following recent declines.
Oil, a key driver of recent volatility, pulled back sharply. Crude futures fell about 4% on Monday after briefly rising above $100 per barrel over the weekend amid Iranian strikes on energy infrastructure.
The retreat in prices comes as tensions in the region appear to ease slightly. Donald Trump called for coordinated efforts to secure the shipping corridor, while reports suggested some oil tankers had resumed transit, easing concerns of major supply disruptions.
Crypto-linked equities also tracked higher. Circle rose around 6%, while Strategy and Coinbase gained roughly 5% and 3%, respectively.
AI Deal Boosts Mining and Infrastructure Stocks
In a separate development, Nebius announced a major agreement with Meta worth up to $27 billion, marking one of the largest AI compute deals this year.
Under the five-year partnership, Nebius will deliver approximately $12 billion in AI compute capacity across multiple sites, built using advanced systems from NVIDIA to support Meta’s expanding AI operations.
Nebius shares jumped about 13% following the announcement, while Meta rose roughly 2.5%.
The deal lifted sentiment across AI infrastructure and data center firms, with positive spillover into bitcoin-related names. IREN gained 6%, Galaxy Digital rose 8%, and Cipher Mining climbed 7%.
Meanwhile, TeraWulf secured a $500 million, 364-day bridge loan led by Morgan Stanley to fund development of its Kentucky data center. The stock rose about 12% on the news.
