Bitwise Asset Management has argued that escalating global conflict could drive Bitcoin's addressable market beyond that of gold, positioning the cryptocurrency as a geopolitical hedge at institutional scale. The firm's thesis rests on Bitcoin's properties as a borderless, seizure-resistant asset that can be transferred without intermediary infrastructure, attributes that become operationally relevant when traditional financial rails are disrupted by conflict or sanctions. Gold's market capitalization currently exceeds $13 trillion, dwarfing Bitcoin's roughly $1.3 trillion, making the implied upside dependent on a significant reallocation of safe-haven capital. The mechanism Bitwise identifies is portfolio-level substitution: as state-level asset freezes and capital controls become more common tools of geopolitical pressure, sovereign and institutional holders may increasingly favor assets that cannot be physically seized or sanctioned off the network. Whether the thesis holds depends on whether Bitcoin's liquidity depth, custody infrastructure, and regulatory acceptance mature fast enough to absorb safe-haven flows at the scale gold currently handles.
Indian startups raised $5.2 billion across 501 deals in H1 2026, down 9% in value but up 7% in deal count year-on-year, per the Inc42 Indian Tech Startup Funding Report. The drop is driven by fewer mega-rounds, while AI funding surged 317% and growth-stage deal activity hit a multi-year high.
The BSE Sensex fell 893 points and the Nifty 50 shed 279 points on June 30, 2026, wiping out roughly Rs 6 lakh crore in investor wealth in a single session. Both indices dropped 1.16%, closing at 76,200.68 and 23,824.10 respectively.
Kotak Mahindra Bank shares fell nearly 3% to Rs 397.6 after CEO Ashok Vaswani announced plans to exit the bank. Investor concern now centres on succession timing and whether the bank's ongoing digital and deposit-growth strategy will stay on track.
South Korea's Kospi dropped 3% at Monday's open while Japan's Nikkei fell 1%, as escalating US-Iran conflict triggered a broad risk-off move across Asian markets. South Korea's heavy reliance on Middle East oil imports makes it especially vulnerable to geopolitical shocks of this kind.
