U.S. Dollar Rallies 1.1% as Gold Reverses $5,418 Spike, Bitcoin Flattens After Khamenei Airstrikes

Gold briefly spiked toward $5,418 before reversing into a more than 4% two-day drop, silver plunged nearly 8% in a single session, and Bitcoin round-tripped intraday losses following the February 28 U.S.-Israel airstrikes that killed Supreme Leader Khamenei, while the U.S. Dollar Index advanced 1.1%. In South Korea, the KOSPI opened March 1 after a three-day holiday break with a 7.24% slump erasing roughly $257 billion in market value, driven by margin calls on over 32 trillion KRW in loans, foreign net selling exceeding $3.5 billion, and sharp declines of nearly 10% in Samsung Electronics and 11.5% in SK Hynix. Chainalysis and Elliptic data show that during the Iranian rial's more than 30% year-to-date depreciation and a 700% spike in Nobitex withdrawal volumes at the onset of the strikes, significant crypto outflows moved to overseas exchanges and into USDT and USDC, underscoring that in acute crises crypto rails are being used primarily to access dollars rather than exit the dollar system.