Markets
What to know:
- Bitcoin, that capricious creature, leapt sharply on Friday, eyeing the $74,000 mark as if it had a vendetta against numbers.
- The surge, as unpredictable as a country ball at a nobleman’s feast, began Thursday evening after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted that the Trump administration might try to tame the unruly beast called oil prices.
- The long-suffering souls who gamble in perpetual futures have found themselves in a peculiar misery, holding positions in negative waters longer than since the great bear market of 2022.
Bitcoin, despite months of shameful underperformance against the genteel stocks and respectable metals, now shows a gleam of pride, adding to overnight gains in early U.S. trading on Friday. One almost suspects it grins at our astonishment.
Trading at $73,800, Bitcoin has surged nearly 5% in the past 24 hours, much of it following the secretary’s musings on oil. It seems the mere mention of administrative action can make even digital coins dance.
Since the outbreak of the Iran war, Bitcoin has outshone broad U.S. stock indices and gold, both of which have sulked miserably under the weight of falling bombs and global unease.
WTI oil, that mischievous mischief-maker, trades at $94.50 per barrel, down from Thursday’s tantrum of nearly $98. Meanwhile, U.S. stocks toddle forward with a modest 0.5% gain, as if in timid admiration of Bitcoin’s audacity.
Oil raises stagflationary risk
Olu Sonola of Fitch Ratings warns that rising oil prices bite household budgets like a gluttonous wolf, threatening to curb consumer spending and slow economic growth.
“Yes, the broader economy may still grow at trend,” he writes, “but with downside risks piling up like neglected snowdrifts, one wonders if the Fed will be able to stride confidently, or merely shuffle helplessly as inflation mocks them.”
Relief bounce
After a period dark enough to rival the shadowy halls of history, Bitcoin finds a modest sunbeam of optimism. Negative funding for perpetual futures has persisted longer than since the great FTX debacle of 2022, when Bitcoin had the audacity to be worth $16,000 after previously flaunting $69,000.
The 30-day funding rate has now been negative for fourteen consecutive days, a streak that, according to K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde, coincides curiously with local price bottoms-a fact almost mischievous in its irony.
Meanwhile, open interest in futures has risen 9% to 700,000 BTC, the highest since early February. Summing it all, the stage is set for a most dramatic short squeeze-a spectacle that would make even Tolstoy chuckle.
Friday gain
The day is not yet spent, but a Friday gain since the February 27 Middle East conflict would signal a rare truce for crypto volatility-a weekend perhaps without tears or dramatic tumbles.
March may mark a turning point. Bitcoin is up 8% so far, threatening to break a five-month losing streak. One almost imagines the coin bowing ceremoniously to the market’s collective relief, with a sly wink at human folly.
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2026-03-13 17:45