Crypto Markets Grapple With Volatility as ETFs Shed $177M Last Week

Bitcoin’s drop from its peak above $75,000 last week has solidified its month-long sideways price action. While the leading cryptocurrency remains sensitive to immediate geopolitical headlines, broader market sentiment was tempered by last week’s $177 million outflows from exchange-traded funds across the crypto sector.

The weekly pullback, which saw Bitcoin dip to a low of $68,500, according to CoinGecko data, highlights the choppy nature of the current market. Over a broader time horizon, however, the asset’s resilience remains a focal point. The top crypto has significantly outperformed gold and the S&P 500 index since the onset of the U.S.-Iran war on February 28.

That divergence is due to Bitcoin’s “several rounds of deleveraging” since its October 2025 all-time high of $126,080, experts previously told Decrypt.

Bitcoin holding well despite geopolitical escalations is encouraging, Richard Usher, director of trading at financial infrastructure provider OpenPayd, told Decrypt, anticipating a bullish second quarter. “The risk is clearly a prolonged conflict which could negatively affect sentiment in all risk assets, but my base case remains that neither side wants, or frankly can tolerate, a drawn-out conflict, so I remain cautiously upbeat for Q2," he said.

Ignacio Aguirre Franco, CMO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, echoed Usher’s outlook. “If macro conditions stabilize, even without a bullish catalyst, that could be enough to push the market into a recovery phase in Q2,” the Bitget analyst told Decrypt.

Though altcoins are at the behest of Bitcoin’s price action and volatility, a recovery in its price beyond $80,000 could be a “key inflection point” that triggers a capital rotation into Ethereum, $XRP, and the broader crypto market, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget, told Decrypt.

Adding a geopolitical twist to the start of this week, Bitcoin spiked to an intraday high above $71,000 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced “productive” conversations with Iran and a five-day pause on planned strikes targeting the country's energy infrastructure.

Leading cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and $XRP jumped alongside Bitcoin, though all three remain down on the week.

The news catalyzed bullish sentiment, with users’ chances of Bitcoin reaching $84,000 before $55,000 jumping by 9% on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan. Myriad users also assign a 20.7% chance to a U.S.-Iran cease-fire, up from 12.8% earlier today.