Bitcoin has regained last week’s gains in a single weekend.
The largest cryptocurrency fell to $69,192 on Sunday morning, down 2.2% over the past 24 hours and down 3.1% over the week, after US President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran on Saturday night demanding it reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on the country’s power plants.
Trump said he would “hit and destroy” Iran’s power plants, starting with the largest, if the strait was not opened to commercial shipping.
The threat marks a dramatic escalation since Friday, when Trump said he was thinking about “ending” the military operation. Going from a reduction to a threat to civil infrastructure in 24 hours shook a market that had spent the previous week building confidence around de-escalation.
The settlement data shows how one-sided the positioning was until the weekend. CoinGlass data shows $299 million in total liquidations in the last 24 hours among 84,239 traders, with long liquidations accounting for $254 million, about 85% of the total.
Bitcoin longs suffered $122 million in damage. Ether longs lost $95.7 million. The largest single settlement was a $10 million BTC-USDT swap on OKX. The asymmetric ratio confirms that the market was leaning strongly bullish after eight consecutive days of gains heading into the weekend, leaving it vulnerable to exactly this type of shock.
Meanwhile, the biggest chips fell at the same time. Ether fell 1.8% to $2,114, The only major stocks in the green during the week were ether with 0.8% and solana with 0.7%. Everything else is in the red for seven days.
The 48 hour deadline means the deadline arrives on Monday night. If Iran does not comply, and there is no indication it will, the market faces the prospect of attacks on electrical infrastructure, which would be the first direct targeting of civilian power systems in the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to most commercial traffic, and approximately 20% of global oil and gas flows remain disrupted.
It now appears that last week’s rally to $75,912 was based on ceasefire speculation that evaporated over the weekend. The Federal Reserve kept rates on Wednesday with a dovish stance that should have supported risk assets, but the lingering risk of war headlines is keeping traders from making outsized directional bets.
