Crypto markets were the first to see investors react after US and Israeli strikes on Iran rocked global sentiment over the weekend.
Around 7:30 a.m. (UTC) on Saturday, or close to Wall Street hours, US President Donald Trump released a video announcing that the US and Israel had launched an attack against Iran. Bitcoin (BTC) reacted immediately and dropped to around $63,000.
Meanwhile, traders rushed to cryptocurrency platforms to trade commodity futures while traditional markets remained closed.
In particular, the outbreak of the last war, major geopolitical events often occur on weekends or Friday evenings. Since crypto is more closely related to macro settings, 24/7 Bitcoin trading is developed as an indicator of stock markets while they are closed.
“The initial move (over the weekend) to the downside in BT securities said that bitcoin never broke its broader market structure. Once it was confirmed that (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) had been killed and the risk of an immediate escalation seemed limited, the price quickly recovered and bitcoin held its ground.”
“By Monday morning, traditional market participants watching crypto over the weekend were already getting a read on sentiment: This was an important geopolitical event, but not systemic,” he said.
Bitcoin absorbs geopolitical shocks in real time
Although not always the case, governments and public companies often consider making important announcements before or after the market closes. New Zealand’s guidelines on dealing with financial products are among those that state this directly:
“If there is no good reason to make an announcement or media release while the affected market is open, it should be done when the market is closed to give investors time to consider the information before the market opens.”
Due to the non-stop trading cycle, crypto investors often do not have time to evaluate information and must react in real time, as seen during the weekend’s ups and downs.
“Although liquidity can be more fragile during these periods and sometimes increase short-term volatility, a seamless market will ultimately increase real-time price discovery and speed up the adjustment process,” Iliya Kalchev, analyst at Nexo Dispatch, told Cointelegraph.
related to: $19 Billion Crypto Market Crash: Was It Leverage, Chinese Tariffs, Or Both?
It sure felt like it on October 10, 2025, when the crypto market experienced its largest liquidation event on record. Trump threatened heavy tariffs against China, which was enough to tank the markets.
This happened before the US closing bell, so Bitcoin plunged along with the major stock market indexes. However, the crypto markets continued to run after that and the liquidation continued, amounting to around $19 billion.
For macro traders, this makes crypto a sentiment gauge during geopolitical shocks. When events occur outside of traditional trading hours, investors increasingly turn to digital asset markets to express their views on risk, liquidity or inflation expectations before stock, bond or commodity markets open.
The 24/7 Crypto market does not stop at Bitcoin or other spot assets. Much of the activity now flows through perpetual futures on centralized and decentralized exchanges, while institutions are also experimenting with tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) that bring traditional financial instruments onto the blockchain rails.
Trading is open 24/7 outside of spot crypto
As Bloomberg reported, the decentralized futures exchange Hyperliquid has become a popular trading platform for commodities and traditional assets such as oil and precious metals.
DefiLlama data shows that Hyperliquid volume also tends to decrease during weekends. But the volume remained high last weekend amid geopolitical turmoil and matched business days.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan added that Tether’s gold XAUT increased trading volume over the weekend, while forecast market volume set new records.
The demand for weekend trading in traditional finance is increasingly reflected by increasing institutional interest in RWAs. Tokenized assets inherit some of the features of the crypto market, including cross-border access and trading outside of traditional market hours.
related to: Banks seem unable to service crypto even though it is popular
McKinsey and Standard Chartered estimate that tokenized assets will reach nearly $2 trillion by 2030, while Boston Consulting Group projects the market could grow from $16 trillion to $30 trillion over the same period.
Traditional markets are also moving to extend their trading hours. In December, Nasdaq sought approval for a 23-hour trading system, divided into overnight and overnight sessions with a one-hour hold, which was not well received by financial services company Wells Fargo.
“I can’t think of an action that games the stock market even more. It makes trading even more of a gamble,” Wells Fargo’s trading desk said in a note to clients, as reported by CNBC.
In January, the New York Stock Exchange said it was developing a 24/7 blockchain platform for stocks and exchange-traded funds.
Crypto markets absorb global shocks in real time
The geopolitical shocks of the weekend will further test the structure of global markets. While traditional financial systems pause between trading sessions, crypto continues to receive data and reflect investor sentiment in real time.
“Bitcoin has become a highly sensitive asset that reacts not only to technological dynamics, but also to changes in liquidity conditions, monetary policy expectations, and geopolitical tensions,” Kalchev said.
Bitwise’s Hoogan said the weekend trading activity made traditional stock exchanges look “archaic”.
While traditional financial venues are exploring widespread or seamless trading systems, Hougan said the activity of blockchain markets during last weekend’s military boom suggests that the blockchain transition may be happening sooner than he previously expected. He claimed that he previously expected traditional finance to be delivered within 10 years.
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