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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTom Lee says Bitcoin\u2019s rally during an oil surge tied to Middle East tensions shows the asset passed a key stress test.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Fundstrat\u2019s Tom Lee has said that Bitcoin passed a major test after it rallied over the weekend while oil prices surged due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
According to him, the price action was a sign that the massive deleveraging from last October is finally behind the market, allowing Bitcoin to re-emerge as a credible store of value.<\/p>\n
Lee was speaking to CNBC\u2019s Scott Wapner on the sidelines of the Future Proof conference in Miami, where he pointed<\/a> out that the crypto market had already been through its bear market.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a bear market already in software, the Mag-7 and in crypto,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s already taken out a lot of speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He also said he expects markets to close March in positive territory and potentially reach 5,300 on the S&P 500 later in the year. However, he warned that there might be a 20% decline at some point, which would likely be when markets stop responding to good news.<\/p>\n On Bitcoin specifically, Lee was direct. When pressed by Wapner on whether the OG cryptocurrency had failed as a safe haven, given that gold outperformed during the most recent stretch of market stress, Lee acknowledged the weakness but framed it as a product of extreme conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cBitcoin did basically break on October 10 because that was the biggest deleveraging event in the history of crypto,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen gold went up, Bitcoin went down.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But according to him, that\u2019s all in the past. \u201cWe have gone through a winter where a lot of the speculation and the leverage is gone,\u201d he said, pointing to the weekend\u2019s price action as a turning point, with BTC holding up in the face of oil prices climbing sharply when Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u201cThis weekend kind of showed Bitcoin is coming back in vogue as a store of value,\u201d Lee said, noting that BTC held<\/a> above $70,000 even as oil moved aggressively higher.<\/p>\n As of the time of this writing, Bitcoin was trading at around $70,000, only dropping 0.2% in the last 24 hours after briefly touching $71,600 per CoinGecko data. Over the past week, it is up about 3% and up nearly 7% across two weeks, although it remains down around 12% year-on-year and sits more than 44% below its October 2025 all-time high.<\/p>\n The picture from on-chain data is mixed, with Binance Research analysis showing<\/a> approximately 29,000 BTC have been withdrawn from exchanges while the price traded in the $65,000 to $75,000 range, a pattern that contrasts with an earlier sell-off from $92,000 to $62,000 when exchange balances were rising.<\/p>\n LIMITED OFFER for CryptoPotato readers at Bybit: Use this link<\/a> to register and open a $500 FREE position on any coin!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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