The United States and Iran are engaging in a war of nerves over resuming cease-fire talks, but cryptocurrency prices rose across the board.
As of 7:50 a.m. on the 21st, on cryptocurrency tracking site CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $75,950, up 2.40% from 24 hours earlier. Bitcoin briefly broke through $76,000 around 6 a.m. the same day.
Ethereum (ETH), the No. 2 by market cap, was up 1.96% at $2,319. XRP (Ripple) rose 1.79% to $1.42, and Solana (SOL) was up 2.19% at $85.7, with each in transaction.
With the Middle East geopolitical crisis persisting, New York stocks closed lower the same day. On the 20th (U.S. Eastern time) at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.87 points, or 0.01%, from the previous session to close at 49,442.56. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 fell 16.92 points, or 0.24%, to 7,109.14, and the Nasdaq composite lost 64.09 points, or 0.26%, to 24,404.39.
Iran declared full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on the 17th but moved to close it again over the weekend. In response, the U.S. military the previous day used force to seize an Iranian cargo ship that tried to break through Iran's maritime blockade.