Bitcoin Recovers Following Plunge as US, Israel Begin Bombing Iran

The price of Bitcoin rapidly fell overnight as the United States and Israel began joint “major combat operations” in Iran, bombing numerous military targets in what officials said were attempts to end the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as take out key military leaders.

But while Bitcoin plunged from a price of $65,572 to $63,176 in about an hour overnight following word of the strikes, the leading cryptocurrency has mostly recovered that ground in the hours since.

It’s currently trading for $65,051, according to data from CoinGecko, still showing an approximately 0.8% loss on the day and 5.2% fall over the last seven days.

Major altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, and Solana also fell sharply following the overnight attacks, but have similarly made up most of that ground as of this writing, showing daily losses of less than 2% each.

Crypto liquidations surged overnight amid the rapid market plunge, with CoinGlass showing about $490 million worth of positions liquidated over the past 24 hours, led by Bitcoin and Ethereum longs. Overall, Bitcoin positions make up $196 million worth of the liquidations, with Ethereum following at $132 million.

At its overnight low, Bitcoin was approximately 50% down from its all-time high mark above $126,000 set last October. The leading cryptocurrency has fallen sharply over the last month, about 23% during that span. Bitcoin started the year at a price around $87,000.

Crypto prices have historically been impacted by geopolitical turmoil, and this time around is no different. For example, the price of Bitcoin and other assets fell sharply after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The overnight strikes led Iran to launch retaliatory attacks against U.S. military assets across the Middle East, while Iran reckons with the fallout from the bombings. News agencies have reported mass civilian casualties in Iran, including a reported 85 deaths after a girls school was struck in the Minah province.

Users on Myriad—a prediction market operated by Decrypt‘s parent company, Dastan—increasingly believe that the Iranian regime will collapse before October, currently penciling in a 51% chance of that happening. Those odds rose 20% over the last day.