Bitcoin broke below $73,000 for the first time in months as fresh US attacks on Iran sent risk assets tumbling and triggered one of the biggest sell-off events of the year.
bitcoin was trading at $72,978 in Asian time on Thursday, down 3.4% in 24 hours and down 6.3% in the last seven days, according to data from CoinDesk, after hitting a low of $72,912. TEther (ETH) fell 4.2% to $1,976, missing the $2,000 level, and is down 7.7% over the past seven days. Solana (SOL) fell 3.5% to $80.57, XRP fell 3.6% to $1.28, and Dogecoin lost 3.2% to $0.0979.
Hyperliquid (HYPE) was the only major to make a weekly gain, down 4.5% on the day, but still up 2.4% over the past seven days. Tron (TRX) posted a 1.9% weekly gain despite the broad decline.
The drop angered leveraged traders. CoinGlass data shows $958.8 million in total liquidations over 24 hours among 167,706 traders, of which $897 million came from long positions and $61 million from short positions.
Bitcoin liquidations led with $386 million, followed by ether with $246 million, and the largest individual liquidation order was a $15.34 million BTC position on Hyperliquid.
A 93% long bias on nearly billion-dollar flow is what happens when traders are positioned for a rally and the market moves in the opposite direction. The leverage accumulated through mid-May was eliminated in a single session.
The trigger came from the Middle East. US Central Command carried out airstrikes against an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz and shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones fired at a commercial ship, with a US official describing the action as defensive and intended to maintain the ceasefire that began last month.
The US Treasury imposed new sanctions on Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, accusing it of extorting ships transiting the strait. Iran targeted the US air base from which the attacks originated, according to a report citing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Kuwait said it was responding to hostile threats from missiles and drones, and its military warned that explosions heard in the country were air defense systems intercepting targets.
President Donald Trump said no nation would control the waterway. “These are international waters,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “The strait will be open to all,” adding that the United States “will monitor it.”
Risk assets fell across the board. The MSCI All Country World Index fell 0.4% from a record high, a gauge of Asian stocks fell 1.7% and S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures pointed lower. Oil rose as strikes clouded prospects for a deal to reopen the strait.
The reaction shows how quickly the optimism that had been building about the ceasefire dissipated. Cryptocurrencies had held their range during several weeks of Iran headlines, and bitcoin held above $74,000 even as ETF demand cooled. Thursday’s strikes broke that floor, and the speed of the cascade of liquidations suggests that traders were caught leaning in the wrong direction.
