Why is the crypto market going up today? (March 2)

The crypto market is going up today, March 2, even as the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East escalated.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to nearly $70,000, while Ethereum (ETH) jumped to $2,065. Other top gainers were coins like Near Protocol, Morpho, Virtuals Protocol, Jupiter, and Pudgy Penguins. The market capitalization of all coins jumped to over $2.38 trillion.

The crypto market rose as the economic impact of the ongoing war in the Middle East remained muted. For example, the Dow Jones Index retreated by just 140 points, while the Nasdaq 100 erased earlier losses and turned positive for the day.

Crude oil price gains were also lower than expected, with Brent settling at $78 and the West Texas Intermediate rising to $73. The two benchmarks were expected to rise to over $100 as the war started.

A likely reason for the crypto market rally is the inverse of buying the rumors and selling the news. In this case, investors dumped Bitcoin and other coins ahead of the war, and are now buying the news.

At the same time, the crypto market is going up as traders predict that the United States, Iran, and Israel will reach a ceasefire in the near term. Odds of a ceasefire happening by March 31st rose to 46%. Similarly, the odds of it happening by April 30 rose to 66%.

The crypto market is going up after the relatively strong US macro data. According to S&P Global, the manufacturing PMI rose from 50.4 in January to 51 in February. Another report by ISM showed that the manufacturing PMI rose from 51.7 to 52.4 in the same period.

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor’s Strategy and Tom Lee’s BitMine continued accumulating Bitcoin and Ethereum last week. BitMine accumulated over 50k ETH, while Strategy bought over 3,000 Bitcoin. These purchases have continued even as these companies have experienced billions in losses. 

Still, there is also a likelihood that the ongoing crypto market rally is a dead-cat bounce. A DCB is a situation where a falling asset rebounds briefly and then resumes the downtrend.