The deterioration of the macroeconomic climate and the collapse of industry giants such as FTX and Terra have weighed on the price of bitcoin this year.
STR | Nurphoto via Getty Images
The cryptocurrency market suffered heavy selling overnight Saturday, amid an unprecedented Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel.
Bitcoin was down about 8% late Saturday as U.S. officials confirmed the attack was taking place. Digital coins were among the only risk assets traded over the weekend and the fall was seen as an initial reaction to escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Bitcoin was trading at around $70,000 on Saturday evening, but dipped below $62,000, according to data from the Bitstamp exchange. By Sunday morning, it had rebounded to trade above $64,000. Other coins like ether also saw strong sales, down as much as 10% in some cases.
Bitcoin’s sell-off was the strongest in over a year, according to Bloomberg, with the coin recently hitting new record highs amid inflows into U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs, which continue to drive price action cryptocurrency.
In the Middle East, the overnight events marked the first instance of a direct attack on Israel from Iranian territory. Israel said it had identified 300 “threats of various types” and eliminated “99%” of those aimed at Israeli soil.
The barrage of drones and missiles on Israel was reportedly in response to a suspected Israeli strike that killed senior Iranian officials in Syria.
The Iranian currency fell to a record low of 705,000 rials/USD on Sunday in the unofficial market around 10:30 a.m. local time, according to data from foreign exchange monitoring site Bonbast.
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s flagship index, the TA-35, was down 0.38% as of 10:23 a.m. London time.
—CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this article.
cnbc
