Oil Volatility Tests Bitcoin: Safe Haven or Risk-On?
Oil price volatility during the Iran war has reopened a long-standing debate in the crypto market: whether Bitcoin acts as a high-beta “risk-on” asset or can function as a safe haven under certain conditions. In a study by David Krause (Marquette University), Bitcoin is seen to shift from being a risk asset during normal periods to having “conditional” hedging properties during the Iran war—that is, behaving more like a hedge when energy shocks and geopolitical risks dominate.
However, Krause emphasizes that this shift in behavior is inconsistent across geopolitical events. During the US military operation in Venezuela, Bitcoin did not exhibit hedging characteristics and instead responded asymmetrically to the decline in oil prices. The key conclusion: Bitcoin's function as a “hedge” appears to be highly dependent on the macro and geopolitical context—including how the market projects inflation, the direction of interest rates, and the level of stress in traditional assets.
In today's market, major crypto prices remain in high territory despite shifting energy and geopolitical narratives: Bitcoin is around US$75,754, Ethereum US$2,307, Solana US$85.76, BNB US$631.35, and Cardano US$0.2486. (Arl)
Source: Newsmaker.id