Bitcoin experienced a temporary dip below $60,000 on Friday morning after news broke that Israel had launched retaliatory missile strikes against Iran in response to the former aggression exhibited by Iran when it fired missiles toward Israel as tension increased between both countries.
According to BeinCrypto, a senior US official confirmed Israel’s strikes, which led to Bitcoin temporarily dropping below $60,000 in price value.
Israel responded to Iran’s past aggression last Saturday when it reportedly launched over 300 drones and missiles towards Israel. Israel however stated that the majority of the missiles were intercepted by Israel and its allies including the United States.
The recent developments in the Israel-Iran conflict caused a momentary dip in the value of Bitcoin (BTC), dropping to $60,000. However, at the time of writing, Bitcoin has rebounded and is now valued at $64,812.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency also experienced a similar dip in price value due to the tensions in the Middle East. The Altcoin dipped to as low as $2,876 but has now rebounded to $3,101 as of the time of writing this report.
Additionally, according to data from Coinglass, the total crypto liquidation amount within the last hour is a modest $49.35 million, primarily stemming from long positions. However, in the past 24 hours, more than $250 million has been liquidated.
The Israel-Iran face-off is the first time the two Middle Eastern countries would be directly having a conflict for a long time besides using proxies.
Jonathan de Wet, chief investment officer at digital asset trading firm Zerocap has said that a worsening situation in the Middle East could see Bitcoin Prices drop to as low as $58,000.
What to know
- The tensions in the Middle East affect the price of cryptocurrencies due to the selling pressure that comes with it. As tension and uncertainty rage in the Middle East global investors are forced to lean towards traditional safe-haven assets like bonds, Gold, and the US dollar while shifting away from riskier investment vehicles like cryptocurrencies.
- The selling pressure that comes with investors all wanting to share their crypto assets usually leads to a drop in price value for crypto assets.
- The Iranian government in Tehran has played down the reported Israeli retaliatory attacks saying that there are no plans for retaliation.