BTC Plummets to $66K and ETH Falls Under $2K Amid Escalating Middle East Conflict—What’s Next for Crypto?

Tomorrow will mark the first month since the war against Iran began, but there’s no evident conclusion in sight.

It was another eventful week on the Iran – Israel/US front, with multiple big developments, including some twists and turns, that continue to influence the risk-on crypto market.

Recall that bitcoin was stopped at $76,000 last Wednesday after it had gained $13,000 since the initial shock when the first strikes in the Middle East began. It slipped to and below $70,000 in the following days as the US Fed refused to change the interest rates, but managed to maintain that level during the weekend.

Then, it dipped to $69,000 on Sunday evening and Monday morning when the impact of the weekend developments reached the legacy financial markets. However, once Trump claimed that the US and Iran have made significant progress in their negotiation talks, BTC exploded by several grand to just under $72,000.

Unfortunately, it retraced to $69,000 hours later as Iran denied his statement. Nevertheless, more information emerged that both countries have indeed carried out some sort of talks, and BTC tapped $72,000 on Wednesday.

It was rejected once again there, and even though it maintained $69,000 and $70,000 by yesterday, it crumbled below both these levels today, dropping to a three-week low of just over $66,000 as of now. This came as the Royal Government of Bhutan kept transferring BTC, likely to sell, and the US has reportedly begun preparing to send thousands of troops to the hot Middle East region.

The reality check compared to last Friday shows that BTC is down by approximately 6%, while some assets, such as ETH, XRP, and SOL, have marked even more painful declines. There are a few exceptions, of course, led by TAO (15%) and WLFI (7.5%).

Market Data

Market Cap: $2.360T | 24H Vol: $112B | BTC Dominance: 56%

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BTC: $66,400 (-5.4%) | ETH: $1,975 (-7%) | XRP: $1.33 (-7.8%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Fannie Mae Shockwave: Crypto-Backed Mortgages Coming to the US. One of the most significant news developments this week came from the behemoth in US mortgages, Better Home & Finance. A report from WSJ indicated that the company has partnered with Coinbase to allow home buyers to pledge BTC and USDC when getting a mortgage backed by Fannie Mae.

NYSE Parent Invests Another $600 Million in Polymarket as Prediction Market Volume Soars. The giant behind the New York Stock Exchange continues with its massive crypto-related investments, this time allocating another $600 million in Polymarket. Its total investment in the crypto-based prediction market has grown to $2 billion.

Analyst: Bitcoin Could Bottom at $46K as ‘Electric Cost’ Falls. Bitcoin has not bottomed out yet – this is what a popular analyst, Ted Pillows, asserted this week. By comparing the asset’s estimated “electric cost,” he determined that BTC might fall below $50,000 and down to $45,000 this cycle.

Gold Fails Safe Haven Test as Prices Plunge Amid War and Uncertainty. Although BTC has retraced in the past few days, it’s still slightly in the green since the war against Iran began. The same cannot be said about gold, whose price has plunged quite significantly since its all-time high in late January.

Post-Hack Pressure Pushes Balancer Labs to Wind Down Operations, Restructure Protocol. The popular DeFi protocol Balancer was hacked a few years back, and even though the entity behind it tried to restructure its operations, it announced earlier this week that it will be scaling down.

Saylor’s Strategy Buys Over 1,000 BTC as Unrealized Losses Mount Up. After a few consecutive multi-billion-dollar BTC purchases, Saylor’s Strategy announced a more modest one this week. It spent $76.6 million to acquire an additional 1,031 BTC, and its total stash has grown to over 762,000 units.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Hyperliquid – click here for the complete price analysis.