Cryptocurrencies are extending their gains on Tuesday as easing concerns over a potential oil supply shock improved risk sentiment in global markets.
The change in sentiment came after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it would call an extraordinary meeting of its member countries to consider releasing emergency oil reserves.
bitcoin rose above $71,500 for the first time since Thursday, before returning to the current $71,300, an increase of 3.2% in the last 24 hours. The broad market CoinDesk 20 index rose by a similar amount, with XRP (XRP), , and Hyperliquid’s native token (HYPE) leads gains among major cryptoassets.
WTI crude oil extended its decline on the news, falling to $82 after rising to around $120 over the weekend. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were up about 0.5% by midday.
Most cryptocurrency-related stocks reflected the advance. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) rose another 6%, now up almost 100% in two weeks, while digital asset infrastructure company BitGo (BTGO) rose more than 8% and blockchain company Figure (FIGR) rallied 12%.
From Nigel Farage was announced to be joining British bitcoin treasury firm Stack BTC (STAK) on Monday, those shares are up more than 200%.
Decoupling Bitcoin from Software
Bitcoin appears to be losing its correlation with the Software Stock ETF (IGV), as BlackRock’s IBIT is up around 3% in the last 24 hours, while IGV is down more than 2%.
However, over the past five days, IGV is up about 1.5% while IBIT is down about 2%, suggesting that IBIT may still have some catching up to do if correlation with software stocks is to be reestablished.
A weakening of correlation could also be notable, as it may indicate that Bitcoin begins to trade more independently of software and technology stocks, potentially becoming a less correlated asset during periods of macroeconomic uncertainty. While it continues to outperform gold and US stocks since the war began.
‘Cautiously optimistic’ for BTC
Zooming out, bitcoin’s recent price action has been relatively resilient despite the ongoing macroeconomic turbulence, said James Harris, CEO of crypto performance platform Tesseract Group.
After briefly testing the low $60,000 area, BTC rallied even as broader risk markets struggled with geopolitical uncertainty, he said. Meanwhile, ETF inflows have remained largely favorable, while strong deleveraging earlier in the month helped clean up excessive positioning in derivatives markets.
The combination of weakened sentiment, removed leverage, and support around the $66,000 zone suggests that Bitcoin may be entering a bottoming process, Harris said. However, downside risk remains as the cryptocurrency market remains fragile.
“If support at the $60,000 area fails, we could easily see another test of the downside, but for now we remain cautiously optimistic on BTC,” he said.
