Dollar surge pressures crypto markets after escalation in Iran conflict

Risk assets fell across the board Tuesday as the U.S. dollar strengthened to a near two-month high following renewed military escalation in Iran, pressuring the crypto market. What to know : The DXY rose 0.5% to its highest level since Jan. 19 after Israel launched fresh strikes on Tehran and Beirut and Iranian drones hit the U.S. embassy in Riyadh, prompting broad declines in crypto, equities and metals. Bitcoin rallied to $70,000 on Monday alongside gold before retreating to $66,500, remaining rangebound since early February, while altcoins such as ADA, ZEC and DASH dropped more than 4% since midnight UTC. CoinDesk’s Memecoin (CDMEME) and DeFi Select (DFX) indices posted modest gains, NEAR jumped 13.3% from oversold levels, and DeFi tokens JUP and MORPHO extended weekly gains of 23% and 20%.