Bitcoin Bounces Back? The Dollar, Oil, and a Five-Week Suckfest

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Markets

What to know:

  • Middle‑East drama has sent the dollar index and WTI crude up, squeezing risk assets like a toddler with an extra snack.
  • Bitcoin is about to finish its fifth straight week of losing money, a streak not seen since the 2022 run‑away that lasted nine weeks.

Picture a gold‑faced cryptocurrency strolling into a ballroom, only to find the music has been replaced with a howling gale. That’s Bitcoin this week. A fifth consecutive loss is almost as terrifying as a fly in an Italian soap opera.

By Thursday, Asia‑time, the most valuable digital coin had already slipped roughly 3% this week, now hovering under $67,000. CoinDesk, always the silver lining, still thinks there will be an additional red close-dare we say, a blush.

Castle‑in‑the‑air jokes aside, the U.S. amassed more air power in the Middle East than it did in 2003. While Washington was hawking “We’re ready” to Iran, the final decision flag‑rantedly lagged behind. Polymarket’s betting market put a 27% shot on that fate by month‑end.

This diplomatic soap opera lifted the dollar index to 97.7, its loftiest level since early February, and pumped WTI crude to $65 a barrel from a low of $62 a day earlier. The higher the dollar and the rising pot of oil, the more risk assets scream in the windows.

Since its October all‑time high near $126,500, Bitcoin has plunged over 50%, treading somewhere around the $60,000 mark. On a monthly basis, five straight declines since October drink in a second‑longest losing streak on record, trailing only a six‑month slide from 2018 to 2019.

With gold, Bitcoin has been trailing for seven consecutive months, a stretch that would make any investment advisor write a tragic poem.

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2026-02-19 09:18