Bitcoin holds $68,300 as gold crashes for a ninth day and Asian stocks drop

The Iran conflict's fourth week is breaking the traditional safe-haven playbook, with gold down to $4,360 and equities falling for a third consecutive session. What to know : Global markets are sliding amid the escalating Middle East conflict, with Asian equities nearing correction territory, bond yields rising and gold suffering a nine-day losing streak despite its traditional haven status. Bitcoin has fallen about 6 percent over the past week but is holding above a key $66,000 support level and has outperformed most traditional assets and other major cryptocurrencies during the latest war-driven sell-off. Investors and analysts say structural shifts, including earlier heavy official-sector gold buying and resilient bitcoin derivatives markets, are shaping price moves as oil surges and Goldman Sachs raises its crude forecasts on what it calls the largest-ever supply shock.(Coindesk)