Bitcoin Plunges Under $73k-$1B in Crypto Liquidations as US Strikes Iran!

Markets

What to know:

Bitcoin fell below $73,000, a level it hadn’t reached in months, after the U.S. launched new strikes in Iran. This caused investors to sell off risky investments, leading to significant losses across the market.

Things are a little shaky in the crypto market today. Bitcoin dipped to around $72,978 during Asian trading, which is down about 3.4% from yesterday and 6.3% for the week. It even briefly hit a low of $72,912. I’m also seeing Ether under pressure, falling 4.2% to $1,976 – it couldn’t hold above $2,000 and is down almost 8% over the last seven days. Solana, XRP, and even Dogecoin are all in the red too, down around 3-4% each.

Despite a general downturn in the market, Hyperliquid (HYPE) managed a slight weekly increase of 2.4%, though it dropped 4.5% on the day. Tron (TRX) also saw a weekly gain of 1.9%.

As an analyst, I’m seeing significant pain in the market following the recent drop. CoinGlass data indicates nearly $959 million in liquidations over the last 24 hours, impacting over 167,000 traders. The vast majority of these liquidations – around $897 million – were from traders who bet on prices going up (long positions), while roughly $62 million came from those betting on price declines (short positions). This clearly shows the drop heavily impacted leveraged long positions.

Bitcoin saw $386 million in liquidations, while Ether totaled $246 million. The biggest single liquidation order was a $15.34 million Bitcoin position on Hyperliquid.

When traders expect the market to go up but it unexpectedly falls, and they’ve heavily invested using borrowed money, the result can be a massive sell-off, like the one seen recently. The gains made throughout mid-May were quickly wiped out in a single day.

Recent events began in the Middle East when U.S. Central Command responded to an attack by striking an Iranian military location near the Strait of Hormuz. They also destroyed four Iranian drones that were heading towards a commercial vessel. A U.S. official stated the actions were taken to defend against the attack and support the ceasefire established last month.

The U.S. Treasury has placed sanctions on Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, claiming they were illegally demanding money from ships passing through the Strait. According to reports linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran then attacked the airbase from which those ships were originating.

Kuwait stated it was reacting to incoming missile and drone attacks. The military confirmed that explosions heard within the country were from its air defenses successfully intercepting those targets.

President Trump stated that no one country would have authority over the waterway, calling it international waters. He said the strait would remain open for all to use, and the U.S. would monitor the situation.

Investors sold off stocks worldwide. The MSCI All Country World Index, a broad measure of global stock performance, dipped 0.4% after reaching a record high, while Asian stocks fell more sharply, down 1.7%. U.S. stock futures also signaled a lower open. Meanwhile, oil prices rose due to concerns that ongoing strikes might disrupt shipping through a key waterway.

As a crypto investor, I saw how quickly things changed. There was a growing sense of optimism about the situation in the Middle East calming down, and crypto had been surprisingly stable, with Bitcoin staying above $74,000 even though demand for ETFs had slowed. But Thursday’s attacks completely changed that. The price dropped fast, and it looks like a lot of traders were caught off guard and forced to sell quickly.

In this article

Read More

• USD RUB PREDICTION
• USD JPY PREDICTION
• Gold Rate Forecast
• USD CNY PREDICTION
• XLM PREDICTION. XLM cryptocurrency
• USD AUD PREDICTION
• AAVE PREDICTION. AAVE cryptocurrency
• Hong Kong’s Strict Stablecoin Rules: Only 2 Licenses Out of 36 Applications Approved!
• GBP USD PREDICTION
• EUR CNY PREDICTION

2026-05-28 07:35