As coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran enter their fourth day, gold has surged toward $5,400 per ounce and Brent crude has jumped about 17% to $83, while Bitcoin has slid back toward $66,000 and remains roughly 47% below its $126,000 peak from last October. According to Elliptic, withdrawals on Iranian exchange Nobitex, which serves around 11 million users and handles about 87% of the country’s crypto volume, spiked over 700% within minutes of the first airstrikes, with nearly $3 million moved off the platform in one hour as users sought to move funds away from local banking channels.

After recent US-Israeli strikes, Elliptic reported a roughly 700% jump in crypto outflows from Iranian exchange Nobitex to foreign platforms. Nobitex handled about $7.2 billion in trading volume in 2025 for more than 11 million domestic users, while unverified social media claims allege ultra-low Bitcoin mining costs and a multibillion-dollar shadow economy tied to mining in Iran.

Between December 8, 2025 and January 30, 2026, Binance worked with Interpol, Afripol and law enforcement in 16 African countries on Operation Red Card 2.0, which led to 651 arrests and the recovery of $4.3 million tied to scam networks linked to over $45 million in losses. The exchange is also challenging a Wall Street Journal article it calls inaccurate and defamatory, while highlighting expanded compliance resources and its role in responding to more than 71,000 law enforcement requests in the previous year.

A large trader identified as 0x007 has opened a 20X leveraged short position on tokenized silver on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 platform, with a notional value above $12.34M and unrealized gains that recently fluctuated around $2M. The position, which benefits from positive funding fees and has a liquidation level at $107.96 while silver trades near $83.67, highlights how some crypto participants are using silver as a comparatively safer and more liquid shorting instrument than altcoins. Silver remains among the top traded commodities on HIP-3 even after losing its top spot to gold, as traders return to short strategies now that the metal has moved into a perceived safer range.

American Airlines Group Inc.'s AAL shares traded lower in premarket on March 3, 2026, after closing down 4.21% at $12.52 the prior session. The stock slipped to $12.06 before the open as military action in the Middle East triggered widespread flight disruptions and pushed Brent crude about 8% higher to $78.77 per barrel, pressuring airline margins and sentiment across the sector.

After the strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Iranians rushed into Nobitex and other domestic exchanges, driving a 700% jump in crypto outflows as they tried to shield savings from a weakening rial and potential banking curbs. Subsequent internet restrictions reportedly cut national connectivity by about 99%, freezing access to major platforms, slowing withdrawals, and forcing some venues to batch transfers. The episode underscored how cryptocurrencies can offer an escape from a fragile financial system while blockchain transparency simultaneously exposes money flows to authorities and global monitors.

Six newly created anonymous wallets reportedly earned about $1.2 million on Polymarket by correctly betting on a U.S. strike on Iran just hours before it occurred on February 28. The trades, flagged by blockchain analysts as highly unusual, have intensified concerns over insider access to sensitive geopolitical information and prompted U.S. lawmakers to call for stricter prediction market oversight.

CoinShares reports that institutional investors allocated a total of $1,000,000,000 to Bitcoin and other crypto investment products over a single week, ending a prior five-week run of $4,000,000,000 in outflows. Bitcoin products drew $881,000,000, while Ethereum and Solana attracted $117,000,000 and $53,800,000 respectively, with the majority of inflows coming from the US market. Despite the sharp rebound, Bitcoin and Ethereum products still show net outflows year-to-date, while Solana investment products have accumulated $156,000,000 in net inflows.