Bitcoin traders admit to cashing in on Iran conflict | City & Business | Finance

The price of gold and oil took a sudden jump within hours of the US airstrike on Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad on January 3. The drone attack also appeared to drive the value of BTC upwards from what had been a drawn-out slump to below $7,000. By the time news of the attack had fully emerged, bitcoin’s post-Christmas hangover had been reversed to the point where it looked set to be building for a challenge on the $8,000 mark.

During the following days of military posturing, the trading volume escalated as investors across the globe began piling savings into cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin’s price – at great odds with the trend it had established in the lead up to Christmas – continued to build before another lurch skywards in the moments after news broke of Tehran’s retaliation in the early hours of Wednesday.

In an instant, BTC was surging to a high of $8,400 – a figure many would have seen as impossible only a week earlier.

Despite the threat of war and…