Middle East Tension Triggers Volatility: US Shares And Crypto Move Defensively

JAKARTA - The global financial markets including US and crypto stocks were again shaken after the United States launched attacks on Iran's three main nuclear facilities.

In terms of crypto, Bitcoin briefly fell sharply below US$100,000 (Rp1.64 billion) due to growing market concerns over the US direct attack.

In fact, Bitcoin was traded in the range of 100,500 US$101,400 (Rp1.65-167 billion) on Monday, June 23, with altcoins such as ETH, XRP, and SOL also starting to recover from last weekend's decline.

Responding to these conditions, Reku analyst Fahmi Almuttaqin assessed that in general, both the US stock market and cryptocurrencies are defensively engaged and have the potential to become more sensitive to the latest developments in the Middle East.

"Overall, both the stock market and crypto currently tend to be defensive but begin to rediscover a new balance after an initial reaction to the geopolitical risk over the weekend, pending further developments," Fahmi said in a statement. .

The ability to survive Bitcoin at the current price level amid all negative sentiments and this uncertainty indicates that market strength is getting more solid.

According to Fahmi, with the existing trend, the existence of positive developments such as inflation that did not experience a significant increase and the lowering of the Fed's interest rate in September could potentially trigger a significant rally in the crypto market.

If the trend of lower interest rates goes according to plan, with the return of the decline either in November or December, existing positive sentiment could potentially develop into the altcoin sector, which has generally tended to be underperformed so far, continued Fahmi.

He emphasized that to optimize this potential, novice investors can consider a routine savings strategy to get an average price amidst the current uncertainty.

"Meanwhile, experienced investors who want to take advantage of the momentum to gain more optimal profit potential, adopt a rotation strategy by moving their assets periodically following every existing wave into several options that can be considered," he concluded.