Escalating tensions in the Middle East have profoundly impacted the cryptocurrency market, causing a sharp downturn. Following the U.S. strikes on three major Iranian nuclear facilities and President Donald Trump’s declaration of the attacks as “successful,” with warnings of further retaliation, the total market capitalization fell by 1.50% to $3.1 trillion. This geopolitical shock wave led to $647.41 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, affecting more than 185,000 investors. Trading volume surged by 26.23% to $136.38 billion, as Bitcoin 
$78,318 plummeted to $98,000 and Ethereum 
$2,399, the largest altcoin, fell to $2,130. Additionally, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index dropped to 37, reflecting heightened market anxiety.
Stunning Wave of Crypto Liquidations
In the last 24 hours, $657.99 million worth of long positions, placed by investors anticipating a price increase, were liquidated, predominantly due to a sudden market reversal. The total value of long positions liquidated reached $505.28 million. A significant amount, $35.45 million, vanished from the BTC/USDT trading pair in the HTX exchange.
Examinations of the exchanges reveal that Bybit led with $252.46 million, followed by Binance with $137.57 million, and Gate with $96.57 million. Bitmex recorded over 95.14% of its liquidated positions as longs, with Bitfinex and CoinEx also showing over 90% in long positions. This signifies that the anticipated uptrend abruptly broke down since June 22.
Decline in Market Capitalization and Technical Outlook
The total cryptocurrency market value, having hit a low of $3.04 trillion, has slightly rebounded to $3.09 trillion. The market touching the lower Bollinger Band indicates oversold conditions, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 38.41 suggests potential for a short-term recovery.
Remaining below the 20-day moving average of $3.23 trillion confirms continued downward pressure. As Bitcoin’s market dominance stands at 64.9%, the highest in this cycle, it continues to suppress altcoins. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s dominance has decreased to 8.7%, indicating weakness among large-scale Layer 1 protocols.
Despite the turbulence, some altcoins like Story IP, Four, and Sonic have attracted speculative interest, registering gains of 11.35%, 10.39%, and 7.68%, respectively, making them the day’s top performers.
