Brent crude jumped nearly 4% as intensifying U.S.-Iran military tensions pushed oil prices higher, while Asian chip stocks remained under pressure after Friday’s market reaction to China’s latest AI breakthrough.
Bitcoin stayed close to $64,000 on Monday as markets balanced rising energy prices caused by geopolitical risks with ongoing uncertainty in technology stocks after Moonshot AI’s new Kimi model sparked a selloff late last week.
The leading cryptocurrency traded around $64,200, remaining mostly unchanged during the session while gaining about 3% over the past week. Trading volume reached roughly $18 billion. Ether continued to outperform major cryptocurrencies, trading near $1,860 and rising 5% over the last seven days.
Other major digital assets saw limited movement. XRP remained near $1.09, Solana hovered around $76, BNB slipped slightly to $565 and dogecoin held steady near $0.07. Hyperliquid’s HYPE stood out on the downside, dropping 10% over the week to $60 as investors remained cautious across risk assets.
Oil markets drew the most attention, with Brent crude climbing as high as $91.42 per barrel, its strongest level since June. The rally followed an escalation in U.S. and Iranian strikes, reigniting inflation worries that had recently eased after weaker U.S. inflation figures.
Technology shares continued to recover from Friday’s sharp decline triggered by Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model. The Chinese open-weight AI system, which performed strongly on a widely followed coding benchmark, fueled concerns about the future of the semiconductor sector and sent chip stocks lower, dragging crypto markets down as well.
The pressure extended into Asian markets on Monday, with South Korea’s Kospi falling 3.5% after traders returned from a holiday break. Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures stabilized, with Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 0.5%, although concerns over the AI investment cycle remained.
For bitcoin and the broader crypto market, the competing pressures largely offset one another. Higher oil prices from geopolitical tensions create risks for inflation and could influence the Federal Reserve’s rate outlook, while weakness in AI-related equities has weighed on semiconductor stocks that bitcoin has recently moved alongside.
The main focus this week will shift from macroeconomic data to corporate earnings. With no major U.S. economic releases scheduled, investors will look to reports from Alphabet, Tesla and Intel for clues about the strength of AI-related spending.
After last week’s volatility in artificial intelligence and semiconductor stocks, upcoming earnings could help determine whether the AI growth story remains intact and whether crypto miners’ transition toward AI-focused data centers continues to gain momentum.
