Gold tops $5,600 per ounce as Bitcoin crashes to $84,000

Stocks ended mixed on Thursday while oil spiked after President Donald Trump weighed potential military action against Iran.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.13% to 6,969.01, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.72% to 23,685.12, while the Dow Jones eked out a 0.11% gain, closing at 49,071.56. In crypto, Bitcoin fell over 5%, sinking to its lowest level in nearly two months.

Oil rallied on reports that Trump is considering targeted strikes on Iranian security leadership, aiming to support anti-government protesters and pave the way for regime change, according to multiple U.S. sources cited by Reuters.

The news follows Iran’s deadly crackdown on protests that left thousands dead earlier this month.

U.S. crude jumped 2.5% to $64.77, while Brent gained 2.3% to $69.99. Traders are bracing for possible supply disruptions across the Middle East if U.S.-Iran tensions escalate into open conflict.

The oil market remains on high alert as the White House weighs its next move.

Gold’s run could still be in its early stages, with JPMorgan’s Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou telling clients that private investors are only just beginning to treat the metal as a real hedge.

Nikolaos said in a Wednesday report that gold allocations could rise from 3% to 4.6% in an average portfolio. If that happens, the implied price could land between $8,000 and $8,500 an ounce. That would be a 40%+ gain from here.

Gold touched a new high near $5,600 on Thursday before easing off slightly. That comes one month after the biggest yearly gain since 1979.

Nikolaos pointed to central bank gold buying and rising geopolitical tension as long-term drivers, with many governments still looking to get away from overexposure to dollar reserves. Households, he added, have also been swapping out long-duration bonds for gold, a trend he expects to continue.

Nikolaos also said retail traders have favored gold over bitcoin, even though momentum traders have pushed both gold and silver into overbought territory, increasing the risk of short-term corrections.

But despite the speed of the rally, gold still shows more robust liquidity and depth than either silver or bitcoin right now.

Gold blew past $5,600 an ounce, setting another record as a nine-day rally picked up speed in a market starved of liquidity, with traders dumping sovereign bonds and currencies and piling into hard assets.

Bullion jumped as much as 4% on the day after a 4.6% surge in the previous session, the biggest one-day gain since March 2020, when Covid chaos froze global markets.

The move has been powered by a weaker dollar, rising geopolitical stress, and growing anxiety over the Federal Reserve’s independence, all feeding straight into the debasement trade.

Spot gold is now up about 28% year-to-date, while silver has climbed nearly 65%, with silver also hitting a fresh all-time high. The pace of the rally has left banks struggling to position, draining liquidity further and driving sharper, more violent price swings.

Away from metals, crypto prices pulled back. Bitcoin traded around $88,000, down 1.21%, with $74.78 billion in volume and a $1.76 trillion market cap.

Ethereum slipped 1.77% to $2,950.5, Solana fell 3.10% to $122.96, XRP dropped 1.43% to $1.8739, HYPE slid 5.23% to $31.794, and BNB held nearly flat at $896.96.

In equities, S&P 500 futures were little changed, up 0.1%, Dow futures fell 55 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.3%, as traders weighed big tech earnings and the latest Federal Reserve rate decision.