The major cryptocurrency slid to $69,192 on Sunday morning, down 2.2% in the past 24 hours and 3.1% for the week, after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran late Saturday night demanding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, threatening attacks on the country’s power plants otherwise.
Trump said he would “strike and destroy” Iran’s power plants, starting with the largest, if the strait is not opened to commercial shipping.
The threat marks a sharp escalation from Friday, when Trump said he was considering “winding down” the military operation. The shift from a drawdown to threats to civilian infrastructure in 24 hours shook up a market that had been building confidence in the de-escalation of the conflict over the previous week.
The liquidation data shows just how lopsided the positions were before the weekend. According to CoinGlass, $299 million worth of assets were liquidated among 84,239 traders in the last 24 hours, with liquidations of long positions totaling $254 million, roughly 85% of the total, coindesk.com reported.
Bitcoin longs suffered losses of $122 million. ether longs suffered losses of $95.7 million, with the largest single liquidation amounting to $10 million on the BTC-USDT swap on OKX. The unbalanced ratio confirms that the market was heavily bullish after eight consecutive days of gains before the weekend, leaving it vulnerable to just such a shock headline.
Major tokens fell in sync. Specifically, ether fell 1.8% to $2,114, XRP lost 2.5% to $1.41, BNB fell 1.4% to $633, Solana dropped 2.1% to $88.55, and Dogecoin lost 2.7% to $0.092. The only major assets with positive momentum over the week were Ether with a 0.8% increase and Solana with a 0.7% increase. All other tokens show negative dynamics for seven days.
The final deadline of 48 hours means it will come on Monday night. If Iran fails to comply, and there is no sign of it, the market faces the prospect of energy infrastructure strikes, which will negatively impact major cryptocurrencies.
