Crypto
Price Of Bitcoin Reaches New High, As Inflation Rises At Level Not Seen In 30 Years
(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Bitcoin hits highest level in 2 weeks following news of Iran deal

Bitcoin crossed $66,500 Monday morning as the broad crypto market welcomed the return of a risk-on mood.

Bitcoin rose to its highest level in two weeks, passing $66,500 Monday morning, after the US and Iran struck a deal to end the conflict.

Bitcoin has shot up 3.5% in the past 24 hours as the risk-on environment returns. But while the asset is starting the week on an optimistic note, some analysts remain cautious, saying that it still faces several headwinds.

Nic Puckrin, cofounder of Coin Bureau, told Sherwood News that while President Trump just handed the markets the “biggest disinflationary event of 2026,” and while bitcoin shot up on the news, there’s more weighing down the price than just the Iran war.

Puckrin said he is not seeing anything in the chart to suggest the return of the structural bull trend, including the fact that bitcoin hasn’t recovered any of the key levels he’s been watching, such as the 200-week exponential moving average.

“If it confidently climbs above $70K and reclaims previous support levels, like $74K, that would give me more confidence. Until then, this is looking more like a dead cat bounce,” Puckrin said.

While the Iran deal could ease oil prices and inflation concerns, Roy Kashi, cofounder and CEO of Falconedge, said the move looks more like a relief rally for now.

Given the scale of the recent sell-off, the rebound feels relatively disappointing, he said. “Importantly, there has been little in the way of technical confirmation that the correction is over, suggesting it may be too early to call a definitive trend reversal,” Kashi said.

The looming US-Iran agreement means bitcoin will face “an interesting test,” Daniela Hathorn, a senior market analyst at Capital.com, said.

“During much of the conflict, crypto has traded like a high-beta risk asset with geopolitical uncertainty coinciding with ETF outflows, higher yields, and weaker sentiment,” Hathorn said.

The key question is whether improving sentiment can offset the headwind of still elevated interest rates, she said.

“Bitcoin remains highly sensitive to liquidity conditions, so investors will continue to watch inflation data and the Fed’s policy outlook closely,” Hathorn said.

The first area she’s watching on the upside is the mid-$60,000s, followed by the previous swing highs around $70,000. On the downside, a break back below recent support would raise questions about whether the recovery is losing momentum, she said.

The other driver pressuring bitcoin has been sustained massive ETF outflows in the past weeks. So far in June, they have registered $2.04 billion in outflows.

But bitcoin ETFs saw a modest $85.8 million in inflows on Friday, breaking a streak of five consecutive days of outflows. While it’s too early to tell whether institutional appetite has resumed, the weekly outflow ebbed to $315.8 million, following four consecutive exits over a billion dollars.

Rajiv Sawhney, head of international portfolio management at Wave Digital Assets, noted that while Friday’s first green shoot is not significant in and of itself, coupled with today’s bullish news, it could suggest we may finally be turning the corner on the persistent bearishness in bitcoin. 

“My expectation is that bitcoin witnesses a broader, albeit slower and more methodical, recovery in the short- to medium-term, all else being equal. Fingers crossed,” Sawhney said.

Finally, Strategy acquired 1,587 bitcoin for $100 million and increased its cash reserve by $100 million to $1.1 billion. 

Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, called bitcoin’s bottom in a Monday note. In a Friday note, he had said he would call it if three confirmatory signals materialized: Strategy bought more bitcoin, ETFs reverted to inflows on Friday, and oil prices continue to break lower, which have all happened.

More Crypto

See all Crypto
crypto

Crypto market snaps back as sentiment lifts, with altcoins from ethereum to XRP soaring

The market capitalization of the crypto industry has jumped around $83.2 billion in the last 24 hours, with privacy-focused token Zcash and worldcoin, the native cryptocurrency of the network backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, leading market gains, jumping over 22%.

But the last 24 hours have been good across the board:

Investors have been eager to see some positive signs around the Iranian conflict ending, coupled with hopeful outlooks around the CLARITY act, both breathing some life into assets, Kairos Research cofounder Ian Unsworth told Sherwood News.

Simon Shockey, a crypto strategist at crypto wallet infrastructure firm Privy, said the upswing stems from several things converging. He pointed to how alt markets broadly were very oversold following the bug found in Zcash that shook confidence.

Friday, Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox said Anthropic didn’t find any more serious bugs with the Zcash protocol after Shielded Labs requested the AI firm run a security audit of the network with Mythos.

Shockey added that the pool of willing sellers has dwindled. Even if structurally, AI is a much more compelling and asymmetric bet in the eyes of allocators, many of these crypto assets have simply run out of marginal sellers despite some shorter-term narrative-driven pumps. The only people left to sell at this point are the teams themselves and VCs.

Net-net: oversold conditions plus exhausted seller bases plus a macro backdrop thats stabilized equals a snapback, especially in names that have real usage or community conviction behind them,” Shockey told Sherwood.

$389M

US Attorney David Metcalf announced Thursday the arrests of Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev, alleged senior members of AudiA6, a cryptocurrency money-laundering service believed to be responsible for laundering over $389 million.

The arrests coincided with a coordinated international takedown of AudiA6 and its infrastructure, involving the search of three properties, the seizure of servers and domains connected to the organization, as well as freezing cryptocurrency assets, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Tkachuk and Ledenev were “charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of sting money laundering,” the DOJ said. If convicted, they face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years of incarceration.

Per the criminal complaint, AudiA6 offered services to conceal the origin of cryptocurrency linked to criminal activity, charging fees of up to 5% of the amount laundered.

The two defendants are in custody of Republic of Georgia authorities, and the US Attorney’s Office aims to seek their extradition to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

crypto

Solana shoves all in on poker with new partnership

If you’ve got money locked up on-chain and an itch to gamble with it in a new way, has the World Series of Poker got good news for you. The WSOP announced it will integrate solana’s blockchain technology into the tournament through crypto payments firm MoonPay.

At its big summer event, players will have the option to buy into tournaments using crypto directly for the first time. In the WSOP’s Bahamas event in December, winners will be able to receive settlements in stablecoins on solana, reducing friction with international settlements.

Solana’s ecosystem, like the WSOP, constantly challenges conventions and remains laser-focused on the consumer experience, WSOP CEO Ty Stewart said in a statement. Solana’s speed and efficiency mirror the fast-paced energy of our tournaments, and we are excited to showcase their technology to our global audience.

The price of solana dipped slightly today, but has dropped more than 48% in 2026, data from CoinMarketCap shows.

Solana has been a popular network, in part from meme coin trading over the past two years, involving viral animal sensations as well as political figures such as President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump as well as Argentine President Javier Milei.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.