The global geopolitical tension is palpable. Here are a few cryptocurrencies worth watching in this context going in 2026.
There’s no two ways around it – the world in 2026 is one where war is clearly on the table. From the Middle East to Ukraine, geopolitical tensions are escalating globally.
As CryptoPotato reported yesterday, the US, together with Israel, struck against Iran. Retaliation followed, and now each side urges the other to reconsider before responding with even fiercer force.
In the context of significant geopolitical tension, we decided to do a little speculation and see which three cryptocurrencies are worth watching in such a scenario.
As much as the industry would like to paint Bitcoin as a safe-haven asset, detached from risk-on markets, it has behaved as anything but over the past year.
Still, BTC remains the crypto king – it’s the largest one by means of market capitalization, accounting for 56% of the entire industry. That’s worth watching. Performance-wise, though, the primary cryptocurrency tends to plummet when conflicts arise and recover as tensions ease. That’s what happened last year when the US struck Iran and later claimed that it destroyed their nuclear program; that’s what seems to be happening now as well.
But it’s also worth noting that Bitcoin has been much more volatile than legacy markets, and experts seem to believe the current price action is indicative of a deep crypto winter.
If that’s the case and the conflict in the Middle East is put to bed (one way or another), this could also ease the markets’ evident uncertainty and eventually push the price higher. On the other hand, a prolonged conflict with escalating tensions and the involvement of additional countries such as Russia, China, and the entirety of the Middle East, could spell more uncertainty – something that the US has vowed to avoid by not getting involved in a dragged-out war in the region. Time will tell.
At the time of this writing, BTC trades at around $67,000 – down 2% on the week, up 5% in the past 24 hours, but more importantly, down 47% from its all-time high achieved just five months ago. While clearly in a downtrend, a resolution of ongoing conflicts could serve as a catalyst for recovery.
Gold has taken center stage in 2025 and, barring one unprecedented drop at the beginning of February 2026, it’s been mostly up for the asset. It’s safe to say it’s living up to its name as a true safe-haven, as investors flock to it during times of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.
Trading above $5,200 per ounce, at the time of this writing, gold prices are up by more than 100% in the last year.
But physical gold isn’t that easy to get, spreads can get significant, and logistics are challenging. That’s where investors might turn to its digital representative, tokens that are fully backed by it.
The two most popular ones, accounting for the bulk of the tokenized gold market, are Paxos’ PAX Gold (PAXG) and Tether’s Tether Gold (XAUT), which carry similar capitalizations.
Both are traded on most popular centralized exchanges with considerable market depth, making them particularly easy to trade with minimal slippage. Of course, you are pretty much trading convenience for security, because you would have to trust that the issuers do, indeed, have enough gold to back them up in case of physical redemption.
But on the other hand, if you are one to speculate, as seems to be a lot of the market nowadays, then having access to a liquid, quick gold wrapper might be an option.
That said, interest in both is evident – their total market capitalizations have soared in the past year.
In 2025, we saw a buying frenzy oriented at privacy coins like Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR). In the context of a high-intensity conflict, which will likely involve heavy sanctions (such as those against Russia, Iran, etc) or increased government surveillance of financial flows, privacy-oriented assets often see a spike in their utility.
Don’t take my word for it.
Despite a crash that took about 55% off its total market capitalization in January, XMR remains up by more than 56% in the past year. ZEC’s case is even more impressive, as it’s up by more than 500% over the same period.
