#Shadow Bitcoin (BTC) — the "sell first, debate later" asset • Price context: trading around $68,000 in early March 2026, down 47% from its October 2025 all-time high of $126,000 • War-week reaction: dropped from ∼$68k to ∼$63,000 within hours of the Feb 28 strikes, triggering over $300 million in liquidations and about $1.8 billion in sell volume in one hour • Bounce: recovered to $69k-$70k on the following Monday, then settled back to $66k-$68k as strikes continued • Range: stuck between $62,500 and $70,000 since early February • Institutional flow: $3.8 billion net outflows from Bitcoin ETFs in February 2026, worst month since ETFs launched; $4.5 billion year-to-date • Correlation shift: in 2026 BTC-gold correlation turned -0.27, while BTC-Nasdaq rose to 0.75 — traders treat it more like tech risk than digital gold

Historical pattern holds: in 2022 BTC fell from $39,000 to $34,322 on invasion news, then rebounded to $44,000 within days. In 2026 the same dip-recovery happened: $68k → $63k → back above $67k by March 1.