Crypto market sees over $1B in daily liquidations, BTC drops below $100k following U.S. strikes on Iran

Crypto markets dipped, with altcoins hit especially hard, in the wake of three U.S. military strikes on Iran Saturday night, setting the stage for volatile market movements when international markets open on Monday. 

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the strikes on Saturday night, calling the strike on three Iranian nuclear development sites “very successful.” On Sunday, Trump indicated on his social media site Truth Social that he may support a regime change in the country. 

Over $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours of the announcement of the strikes, according to public data aggregated on Coinglass, with the majority of liquidations affecting long positions. Coinglass’s reported liquidation figures are based on publicly available data, which likely understates the true extent of market liquidations. 

Iran’s parliament responded to the strikes by calling on the country’s leaders to close of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point for the global oil trade, leading traders to brace for a spike in oil prices when markets open. The ultimate decision to close the strait rests with the country’s leadership; despite past threats to do so, the country has never successfully closed off the strait. 

The price of Bitcoin fell below $100,000 for the first time in 45 days on Sunday as prices declined across the cryptocurrency market. Though U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs are currently on an inflow streak of nine trading days, relatively weak inflows on Friday and BTC’s price drop set the stage for the streak to be broken on Monday. 

The Block’s GMCI30 index of the top 30 cryptocurrencies by market cap is down nearly 10% over the past week, despite being the best-performing index; small caps and AI tokens were hit particularly hard by the selloff, dropping 17% and 20%, respectively, over the same time period. 

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