Bitcoin fell nearly 2% in 15 minutes on Sunday, while oil prices rose nearly 20%, as the escalating conflict in the Middle East fueled fears of a major supply shortage in the global energy market.
Oil prices rose to $113.7 a barrel from $95 a barrel shortly after the U.S. futures market opened, data from decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid showed, as Iraq warned that nearly 3 million barrels a day of production would be disrupted due to Iran’s threats against tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
TradingView data shows that this is the highest oil price since April 2022, just weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Oil prices surged more than 30% last week after the US and Israel attacked Iran, prompting the war-torn nation to confront several of its Middle Eastern neighbors.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell from $66,960 to $65,725 by 22:30 UTC on Sunday as US futures markets opened higher before rebounding to $66,272 at press time.
Hyperliquid data also shows that oil prices have cooled to $105 per barrel.
Bitcoin rallied last week amid the Middle East conflict that saw the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, rising from $64,000 to $73,770 by Wednesday.
But since then, the price of Bitcoin has been falling continuously for the last four days.
Trump is not worried about oil prices
Despite the increase in oil prices, Trump expects that the rapid increase in oil prices will be short-lived:
“We thought oil prices were going to go up, and they are going to. They’re going to go down. They’re going to go down very quickly,” Trump told reporters on Saturday.
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Trump also dismissed the idea that the US might need its strategic oil reserves, saying:
“We have a lot of oil. Our country has a lot,” Trump said. “There’s a lot of fat there. It heals very quickly.”
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