Hey everybody, this is Femmolanyu from Free Domain. Bitcoin down. This is late March 2026. It's sliding,

and it's not some isolated crypto drama. It's, of course, bigger stuff that's going up and down

in the entire financial world. So Bitcoin is down, I guess, more than 20% or so for the year.

So far, it's a long way down from the peak above 125,000 US.

It hit back in October of 2025.

Now, of course, if you've been around the space for a while,

you know this asset often rides waves of optimism and terror.

Fear is winning at the moment,

and the reasons go well beyond the usual headlines

about whales or tweets or diamond or paper hands and so on. Of course, the spark for this latest

drop is geopolitical tension in the Middle East. In early March, the United States and Israel launched

major strikes on Iran,

part of what's some called Operation Epic Fury,

retaliatory moves followed,

even though there are now talks of de-escalation,

the uncertainty lingers.

That pushed oil prices higher because, of course, everybody worries about

the supply disruptions through key routes

like the Strait of Hormuz.

Higher oil, of course, higher oil costs, feed straight into inflation fears in the US.

When inflation looks sticky, investors assume the Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer

instead of cutting them aggressively, higher rates, of course, make borrowing more expensive

...