- Bitcoin (BTC) dropped more than 8% in the immediate aftermath of Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday.
- The dip in the world’s leading cryptocurrency also left altcoins tanking in its wake.
- BTC has now regained the $65,000 mark.
Bitcoin Tanks as World War 3 Trends
The recent attack of Iran on Israel just brought about an all-new level of tension in the Middle East. With “World War 3” trending on X (formerly Twitter) and becoming the talk in newsrooms and other social media circles, Bitcoin lost its foothold above the $70,000 line and tumbled below the $62,000 range on Saturday. This is all happening less than a week before the prime cryptocurrency’s fourth halving.
This resulted in the price of Bitcoin fluctuating between the $62,000 and $65,000 mark during the weekend. As of this writing at 2:00 AM UTC on Monday, BTC is now trading at $65,300, which shows over a 2% recovery in the 24-hour chart but is 5% short in the seven-day period. Likewise, the digital asset has lost greater than 8% in the monthly frame, dragging along mainstream altcoins with it. On the bright side, it’s still 114% up across the one-year span.
Bitcoin is about to enter its fourth halving cycle at its 840,000th block height. With only 722 blocks remaining at this moment, the predicted date of the event is this coming Saturday, April 20.
Halving is a pre-programmed deflationary mechanism of Bitcoin that occurs every 210,000 blocks mined. As its name hints, it cuts its blockchain’s block reward by half, which brings the present 6.25 BTC per block reward to 3.125 BTC past the halving this week.
With the growing institutional adoption of the digital currency — thanks to the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US last January, the aggressive accumulation of financial institutions of the virtual asset, and the impending entry of giant Chinese financial entities in its ecosystem — there’s optimism that Bitcoin may fly to new heights months after the halving, following the expected “sell the news” event taking place by the coming weekend.
The Israel-Iran Conflict
Iran rained down a barrage of attack drones and missiles toward Israel on Saturday. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari estimated over 200 drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles during the incident.
The attack came as a response to the Israeli airstrike that targeted a building near the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, at the start of the month. This reportedly led to the death of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was the top military asset of Iran as he commanded the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force in both Syria and Lebanon.
Despite the propensity of Iran’s military response, most of the attacks were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.