- Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market took a huge loss after Iran officially launched an attack on Israel
- The biggest loss bearers of this event among the top 20 coins were SHIB, AVAX and XRP, losing more than 10% in the last hour.
The cryptocurrency market has registered a huge reaction to the escalating tensions in the Middle East. Bitcoin (BTC), the king coin, has lost almost 8% of its value in a few minutes, while other cryptocurrencies have registered losses greater than that. The major crypto fall follows news of Iran’s official attack on Israel, confirmed by Israeli authorities.
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $62,049 at the time of writing with a market cap of over $1 trillion. The coin has registered a downtrend of 7.51% in the past hour, while the trend over the past day shows a similar pattern.
Bitcoin (BTC) price Source: TradingView
Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency on the market, has also lost much of its value in the past hour. According to CMC, ETH lost almost 9% of its value, while the coin was trading at $2924 at the time of writing. The market capitalization for ETH was over $353 billion, while trading volume was over $41 billion.
The three biggest losers in the top 20 cryptocurrencies over the past hour were Shiba Inu (SHIB) down almost 13.01%, XRP down 13.89% and Avalanche (AVAX) down 12.46%.
Bitcoin is hardest hit by escalating situations in the Middle East
The price of the crypto market fell collectively after reports confirmed that Iran has launched a direct attack on Israel. This step comes across as an important one because it is the first time the Iranian regime has launched an attack directly on Israel from its territory.
Iran has launched dozens of drones at Israel and the target of the attack remains unclear. The move comes as a response against Israel for the IDF’s attack on the country’s consular building in Damascus. Together with the market reaction, the attack has led to the closure of Israeli airspace and aircraft have been diverted from any Israeli destination.