Risk assets started the week on weaker footing after President Donald Trump declined to close off the chance of further US military action against Iran before November’s midterm elections. Speaking Sunday, he said he expected the conflict to be won “very soon” and that oil prices would then fall.
At the same time, he refused to rule out more strikes. Asked whether operations could resume before the vote, he repeated that he did not want to answer, then added that such action remained possible.
Those comments quickly showed up in overnight trading. Bitcoin slipped about 1.3 percent to $83,324.
Other large cryptocurrencies, including ether, XRP and Solana, also traded lower.
Nasdaq-100 futures dropped 0.7 percent. Energy markets moved the other way: West Texas Intermediate crude rose nearly 1 percent toward $93.28 a barrel, and Brent also advanced.
Higher oil prices raise the prospect of renewed inflation pressure if fighting continues and energy flows stay constrained.
Trump argued the United States was prevailing through both military and economic pressure.
He said Iran’s economy had collapsed, pointing to extremely high inflation and a currency he described as nearly worthless.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, said Tehran was still open to nuclear talks if Washington showed it was not seeking regime change.
The president separately said he expected more discussions this week, while also noting that he was “always thinking about” renewed strikes.
A packed US data calendar adds another source of uncertainty.
Markets are waiting on PCE inflation, the ISM manufacturing survey and the monthly employment report.
Those figures will feed into Federal Reserve policy expectations after bitcoin’s 42 percent gain over the previous three months.
The market reaction also sits against a wider climate of caution around technology and artificial intelligence.
Earlier in September, several prominent AI executives urged the industry to slow the pace of frontier model development.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that rapid capability gains, including recursive self-improvement, raised risks from cybersecurity threats to economic disruption.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk publicly backed a more measured approach.
Chipmakers and other AI-linked stocks sold off at the time, leaving investors more alert to any sign that the AI spending cycle could cool.
That earlier debate has kept tech volatility elevated even when crypto and Nasdaq moves have diverged.
Traders now have two overlapping concerns: unresolved geopolitical risk that could keep energy prices high, and lingering questions about how fast the AI build-out will proceed.
Either one can weigh on risk appetite. As the week begins, both bitcoin and tech futures are reflecting that more defensive mood.