By Callum Keown

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies slipped from their recent highs early Thursday, but they are still up strongly in recent days defying the escalating Iran War.

Bitcoin was trading at $71,865 early in the day, up 1.2% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. However, the world's largest cryptocurrency is down from highs of $74,000 at one point Wednesday -- its highest level since Feb.4.

Still, it's up more than 6% over the past week, recovering from an initial slump to $63,000 immediately after the U.S. launched attacks on Iran Saturday morning. Ethereum climbed 1.9% Thursday, while popular altcoin XRP rose 0.7% -- both are up over the past week.

Cryptos' strong gains Wednesday came after President Donald Trump supported the industry's Clarity Act -- market structure legislation for digital assets -- in a Truth Social post. The bill stalled in January as Coinbase pulled his support after draft proposals were released ahead of a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee.

Trump called for the legislation to be passed urgently, siding with the crypto industry in their dispute with banks over stablecoin rewards. Coinbase and other firms want to be able to pay customers a yield for keeping stablecoin holdings, but that's a threat to banks that pay low rates of interest on consumer accounts.

Separately, Kraken's banking unit has gained access to the Federal Reserve's core payment systems, the company said Wednesday. It's the first crypto company to get access and could be a major breakthrough for digital assets' push into the mainstream.

Finally, the broader market rebound probably helped Bitcoin as risk assets rallied -- the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index jumped 1.3%.

But with stock futures pointing lower early Thursday, it's probably taking the sting out of Bitcoin's rally a bit. Still, it's been a great week so far.

Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 05, 2026 05:01 ET (10:01 GMT)

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