Matt Hougan believes that the rising tensions in Iran may cause a global shift from the traditional financial markets to the on-chain crypto markets.

After a long weekend involving attacks on Iran, many traditional financial systems have been forced to close. But through all this, the crypto market stayed open, causing many traders and traditional investors to move their funds over to exchanges.

Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, believes that this moment could mark a turning point for global finance. For many years, many experts assumed that the blockchain and crypto market would grow slowly, especially at the edges of the system, before it finally replaced the old infrastructure.

For Hougan, he argues that this shift could happen faster than expected. He recounted the early hours of Sunday morning U.S. time when the attacks were first announced.

Immediately after the announcement, the U.S. stock exchanges were closed, the futures markets were closed, and the European and Asian markets were also offline. Only a few Middle Eastern exchanges were operating, and they represent a very small portion of global trading activity.

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In the past, investors would have had to wait for hours for U.S. futures markets to reopen before reacting to geopolitical news. This time it was different, as the crypto markets, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, became the only means available for immediate price discovery.

Onchain Crypto Markets Take the Spotlight

In the same weekend, it was on-chain, the increase in decentralized trading activities as many platforms saw an increase in users. For instance, Hyperliquid drew global attention for its perpetual futures contract options on cryptocurrencies that give access to real-world assets, including oil.

The number of trading volumes on Hyperliquid increased significantly after the news broke. When reporters at Bloomberg covered the market reaction to the attacks, they cited prices from Hyperliquid’s crude oil contract. That increase was notable because, in previous crises, journalists would typically rely on traditional futures exchanges for such data.

Source: Cointelegraph

XAUT, Polymarket, and Kalshi also saw significant trading volumes, and top cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum became the center of global attention.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ March 5, 2026 3:00 am