Bitcoin’s Wild Swings Wipe Out $700M—US-Iran Conflict Fuels Market Chaos (Weekend Watch)

Crypto markets got steamrolled as Bitcoin's volatility triggered a $700 million liquidation bloodbath—just as geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran reached a boiling point. Here's how traders got caught in the crossfire.

Leverage meets liquidation

Another weekend, another high-leverage massacre. BTC's 10% price swing left over-leveraged degens nursing seven-figure losses—proving, yet again, that the market takes no prisoners.

War drums rattle markets

As US strikes hit Iranian targets, crypto mirrored traditional markets' knee-jerk risk-off reaction. Because nothing says 'safe haven' like an asset that can drop 20% before your coffee cools.

The silver lining? At least the Fed can't blame this volatility on crypto ETFs anymore.

Bitcoin Price Dips to $101,000

As CryptoPotato reported earlier today, Bitcoin’s price dipped to an intraday low of $101,000. It has since recovered a little bit and trades at $102,500 at the time of this writing.

That said, the volatiltity remains enhanced, which has resulted in a whopping $700 million worth of liquidated positions across derivatives markets.

Data from CoinGlass shows that this represents an increase of more than 55% compared to yesterday’s levels, attesting to the uncertainty of the ongoing situation.

The turmoil is largely caused by the US decision to strike Iran earlier today, despite Donald TRUMP saying that he will take two weeks to decide on future moves, just a few days ago.

Bahrain and Kuwait, home to US bases, also started making preparations for the possibility the conflict might spread to their territory in a clear sign of escalation. The same is true for Saudi Arabia.

Altcoins Deep in the Red

The declines spread across altcoin markets as well, which took even bigger of a beating. ETH plunged by more than 7%, SOL is down by over 6%, DOGE, ADA, LINK, SUI, and many more chart similar drops as traders derisk.

The obvious exception is LEO, which remains more or less break even on the day, at least from the top 50 cryptocurrencies by means of total market capitalization.

Today’s worst performer is Aptos (APT), followed by Virtuals Protocol, and Injective (INJ), all of which are down in the range between 10% and 13%.