The price of Bitcoin continued its downward trend on Monday. A fresh escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran significantly dampened market risk appetite for speculative, non-yielding assets like cryptocurrencies.

As of 12:26 Beijing time, Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down 1.8%, trading at $62,853.4.

Broadly, cryptocurrency markets were lower on Monday, extending losses from the weekend and continuing to hover near year-to-date lows.

Since the outbreak of US-Iran conflict, this dynamic has been a persistent factor weighing on crypto prices—rising interest rates typically reduce investor interest in assets like cryptocurrencies that offer no yield.

At current levels, Bitcoin's price remains approximately 50% below the all-time highs reached in October of last year, with overall market sentiment still bearish. Concurrently, growing investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence-related stocks is further diverting capital away from the crypto market.

Data from SoSoValue indicates that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have now experienced eight consecutive weeks of net outflows, signaling a substantial cooling in institutional investor interest in allocating to crypto assets.