Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Earlier today morning, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards confirmed an airstrike against nine missiles launched against the Ain Al-Asad Air Force Base in Anbar Governorate of Western Iraq, near the Syrian border. As bitcoin has already proved in the past to react to geopolitical events, this resulted in the prices finally breaking $8,000. In addition to bitcoin, crude oil prices surged to new highs, the value for gold and yen increased, and the U.S. stock index futures fell in the short-term.
The bitcoin price rose above the $8k mark during the early hours of trading and then and reached a high of $8,400, achieving an increase of 23%.
Gold rose in price too in reaction to the event as the market opened in the morning, breaking the $1,600 mark. Eventfully, this was also the first time that gold price had reached a high of $1,600 since 2013. The Japanese Yen also rose during the early trading hours, going from a 108 to 107, a low since October 2019. Oil prices in the U.S. gained about 5% during the day. The peak trading value during the day was the highest it had been since April 2017.
International oil prices have taken off, with U.S. crude oil gaining nearly 5% during the day. The highest intraday price reached U.S. $ 65.62 / barrel, the highest since late April 2019.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council stated that 13 different retaliation programs considered for U.S. action against Iranian General Suleimani in his remembrance. The council also threatened that the weakest option had enough power to pose a “historical nightmare” for the U.S.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the United States would see the consequences of its killing of Suleimani “at the time and place of its choice”.
Officials say that President Trump has been informed of the incident at the U.S. facility in Iraq and is closely monitoring the situation with his national security team.
In the short term, the situation is posing to be a catalytic event in the global financial market.