Bitcoin has given back last week’s gains in a single weekend.
The biggest cryptocurrency fell to $69,192 on Sunday morning, down 2.2% over the past 24 hours and 3.1% on the week, after US President Donald Trump late Saturday issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran demanding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on its power plants.
Trump said he would “hit and wipe out” Iran’s power plants, starting with the largest, if the strait was not opened to commercial shipping.
The threat marks a dramatic escalation from Friday, when Trump said he was considering “winding down” the military operation. Going from unwinding to threatening civilian infrastructure in 24 hours whipped a market that had spent the previous week building confidence around de-escalation.
The liquidation data shows how one-sided the positioning was heading into the weekend. CoinGlass data shows $299 million in total liquidations over the past 24 hours across 84,239 traders, with long liquidations accounting for $254 million, about 85% of the total.
Bitcoin longs took $122 million in damage. Ether longs lost $95.7 million. The largest single liquidation was a $10 million BTC-USDT swap on OKX. The lopsided ratio confirms that the market tilted strongly bullish after eight straight days of gains heading into the weekend, leaving it vulnerable to just this kind of headline shock.
Major tokens, meanwhile, fell into lockstep. Ether fell 1.8% to $2,114, XRP lost 2.5% to $1.41, BNB fell 1.4% to $633, solana fell 2.1% to $88.55, and dogecoin lost 2.7% to $0.092. The only big greens of the week were ether at 0.8% and solana at 0.7%. Everything else is red over seven days.
The 48-hour window means the deadline comes Monday night. If Iran does not comply, and there are no signs that it will, the market faces the prospect of attacks on power infrastructure, which would be the first direct target of civilian energy systems in the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed to most commercial traffic, with around 20% of the world’s oil and gas flows still disrupted.
Last week’s rally to $75,912 now appears to be built on truce speculation that evaporated over the weekend. The Fed kept interest rates on hold on Wednesday with a dovish lean that should have supported risk assets, but the lingering risk of war headlines is causing traders to hold back from making too big directional bets.
