Bitcoin (BTC) faced a temporary drop below its crucial support level of $60,000 on Friday, as it fell 5.44% within two hours. This decline came amidst escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. On April 19, Bitcoin briefly dipped to $59,698 before quickly rebounding to $61,352. It is worth noting that if the price falls to $59,000, approximately $243 million in long positions will be liquidated, according to CoinGlass data. In the past four hours alone, $34.03 million worth of Bitcoin long positions have been liquidated.
This drop in price coincides with reports from Iranian state media about explosions at Isfahan airport in central Iran. A similar situation occurred on April 13 when Bitcoin experienced similar volatility following an attack by Iran on Israel, causing an 8.4% drop in price. News of the attack wiped out over $130 million in market capitalization within minutes.
Bitcoin holders may also be preparing for increased volatility as the Bitcoin halving event approaches on April 20. This event, which occurs every four years, halves miners’ rewards. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a tool tracking market sentiment in cryptocurrency markets, has dropped 13 points since last week’s greed index of 79.
Though Bitcoin has been trading above the $60,000 mark for the past week, it briefly fell from an opening price of $63,814 on April 17, dropping as much as 7.5% to an intra-day low of $59,648, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro. Open Interest (OI) in Bitcoin has also seen a decline of approximately 17.6% over the past week, reaching $28.06 billion.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also experienced a significant decline, dropping 5% below its critical price level of $3,000 and briefly touching $2,876 before testing its support level again. The overall crypto market cap currently stands at $2.26 trillion, with a 0.53% decrease in the past 24 hours.
In other news, hip hop stars have shown a growing interest in cryptocurrency, with many embracing Bitcoin as a means of investment and diversification.