According to TF1 Info, early on a Monday morning in Le Chesnay, Yvelines, three individuals impersonating police officers held a French couple in their late fifties hostage in their home and forced them at knifepoint to transfer the equivalent of €900K in bitcoin. After the assailants fled in a white van around 9 a.m., the slightly injured woman managed to free her husband and seek help, while the Versailles prosecutor's office opened an investigation into kidnapping and armed robbery by an organized gang.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan argued in a memo published Tuesday that Bitcoin could climb to $1 million within the next decade if the store-of-value market keeps expanding and BTC secures a larger share of that capital. He compared Bitcoin and gold, noting gold's value grew from about $2.5 trillion in 2004 to roughly $36 trillion today, and projected that a future $121 trillion store-of-value market would require Bitcoin to capture around 17% to justify the seven-figure price. Hougan added that monetary policy and macroeconomic conditions will be key in determining whether such an outcome is achievable, and suggested the projection might still be conservative if macro risks intensify.

Arthur Hayes has reiterated his long-term bullish outlook for Bitcoin but said he is holding off on new purchases until the Federal Reserve starts easing monetary policy, even after BTC climbed back above $70,000 and briefly topped $71,000. He believes fresh central bank liquidity, rather than geopolitical tensions, will drive the next major rally, while warning that a deeper pullback below $60,000 is still possible before a move toward his $250,000 target for 2026.

Bitcoin climbed back above $70,000 on Tuesday, coinciding with a rise in optimistic social media sentiment that Santiment linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's latest remarks about the conflict with Iran. Despite this renewed FOMO, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index stayed at an "extreme fear" reading of 15, while Google Trends interest in "Bitcoin" has eased from its March 5 high.

Bitcoin has rebounded to around $70,000 after a weekend slide into the mid‑$60,000 range that followed US‑Israel strikes on Iran and heightened energy‑market stress. The move higher has coincided with comments from President Donald Trump suggesting the Iran conflict could be resolved "very soon", a drop of more than 7% in Brent crude to about $91 a barrel from a recent $119.50 peak, and renewed demand in futures and spot ETF markets. On‑chain and derivatives data indicate war‑related pressure is easing, with analysts viewing the episode more as a short‑term positioning and liquidity shock than the start of a new bear phase.

Bitcoin has staged a recovery above the $68,500 and $69,200 zones and is currently trading over the 100-hourly simple moving average while consolidating below resistance. The price faces key hurdles around $70,500 to $72,000, and a failure to clear these levels could trigger fresh declines toward supports at $68,500, $68,000 and potentially $66,500.

Marathon Digital moved 298 BTC, valued at about $20.57 million, from MARA-linked wallets to Cumberland, adding fresh miner-related supply to the market. Despite this transfer and sharply negative Funding Rates, spot order-flow data still showed buyers absorbing selling pressure while on-chain ratios like NVT and Stock-to-Flow pointed to stronger network activity and scarcity.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who has projected Bitcoin could reach $250,000 by year-end, said he would not allocate even $1 to BTC at the moment and prefers to wait. He plans to start buying again only after the United States Federal Reserve eases monetary policy and resumes large-scale money printing, a scenario he links to escalating conflict in the Middle East.