Bitcoin drops below US$100,000 after US strikes Iran nuclear sites

Bitcoin slid below US$100,000 for the first time since May and Ether sank sharply after President Donald Trump said US bombers attacked Iran’s three main nuclear sites, triggering risk aversion in weekend trading in digital-asset markets.

Bitcoin sank as much as 3.8 per cent to US$98,904 as of 12.05pm in New York in the aftermath of the attacks. Ether, the second-largest token, fell as much as 10 per cent to about US$2,157, its lowest intraday level since May 8.

“Markets are nervously eyeing ongoing geopolitical developments,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a provider of liquidity for crypto derivatives. The focus of markets will be largely on oil when traditional markets reopen, she said.

The latest losses come after Trump said the Iranian sites of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were struck in the operation, specifically describing a “payload of BOMBS” dropped on Fordow, a key location of uranium enrichment that has raised international concern that Iran was preparing to create a nuclear weapon.

“The overhang of whether the US would strike Iran caused a sell-off through the week and into the weekend,” said Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital Management.

Total liquidation of crypto bets over the last 24 hours was more than US$1 billion, with about US$915 million and US$109 million in long and short positions closed respectively, according to data compiled by Coinglass.