The deteriorating macroeconomic environment and the collapse of industry giants such as FTX and Terra have put pressure on the price of Bitcoin this year.
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Cryptocurrency markets took a heavy hit on Saturday night as Iran launched unprecedented drone and missile attacks on Israel.
Bitcoin The company’s shares fell about 8% late Saturday as U.S. officials confirmed the attack. Digital currencies were among the only risk assets trading over the weekend, with losses seen as an initial reaction to rising tensions in the Middle East.
Bitcoin was trading around $70,000 late Saturday, but has since plummeted below $62,000, according to data from the Bitstamp exchange. By Sunday morning, it was trading above $64,000. Other coins, such as Ethereum, also saw heavy selling, falling as much as 10% in some cases.
According to Bloomberg, the sell-off in Bitcoin is the worst in more than a year, with Bitcoin recently setting new records as funds flowed into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, continuing to drive the cryptocurrency’s price action.
In the Middle East, overnight events marked the first direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil. Israel said it had identified 300 “threats of various types” and eliminated “99 percent” of threats traveling to Israeli territory.
According to reports, a large number of drone and missile attacks on Israel were in response to a suspected Israeli attack in Syria that resulted in the death of a senior Iranian official.
The Iranian currency fell to a record low of 705,000 rials per dollar in unofficial markets around 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, according to foreign exchange monitoring website Bonbast.
The flagship index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, TA-35, Very frustrated It was 0.38% at 10:23 a.m. London time.
—CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this article.
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