Bitcoin beat the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and gold since the start of the Iran war

A bitcoin comeback may be underway.

Just as the cryptocurrency was kicking off its latest winning week, ProShares' Simeon Hyman was emphasizing a bullish bitcoin trend onCNBC's "ETF Edge."
"If you look at bitcoin, it's up a little bit and equities are down [since the Iran war began,]" the firm's global investment strategist said on Monday." "So, I think the diversification story really holds in in this current environment."
As of Friday's market close,bitcoingained 5% this week — with most of the gains coming over a 24-hour period.

Plus, it's up roughly 8% since the Iran war started on Feb.

28.

Meanwhile, theS&P 500andgoldare down more 3% since the war with Iran began, and the tech-heavyNasdaqis off more than 2%.

ProShares is active in the cryptocurrency space — operating more than a dozen cryptocurrency ETFs.

It launched theProShares CoinDesk 20 Crypto ETF (KRYP)last month.

It's up nearly 5% since the Iran war began, but the fund is off about 7% since its early February debut.

Despite bitcoin's recent strength, it's still down more than 40%from its record high of $126,198 reached last October.

Main Management founding partner and CEO Kim Arthur thinks bitcoin is in aclassic crypto winter— a so-called phenomenon that tends to happen every four years.

According to Arthur, it's in the bottoming stage.

"Bitcoin was trading at $125,000 five months ago.

So, it was down 50-plus percent when this conflict erupted," he said in the same interview.

"I do like the fact that it's outperformed a lot of other asset classes [since the war,] but...

you have to widen the lens a little bit on that."
Arthur, who has exposure to bitcoin, indicates he's taking a passive investing approach to the cryptocurrency right now.

"For myself as an asset allocator and a portfolio manager...

I look at bitcoin as my benchmark, and then I bench everything else against that," said Arthur, who added bitcoin has been an extremely difficult master to beat particularly since 2021.

The digital currency has gained about 15% over the past five years.

Got a confidential news tip?

We want to hear from you.

Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

©2026Versant Media, LLC.

All Rights Reserved.

A Versant Media Company.

Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes.

Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data
and Analysis.