Heightened fears of renewed conflict in the Middle East triggered a broad sell-off across cryptocurrency markets, pushing digital assets sharply lower as investors shifted toward safer positions.
The global cryptocurrency market lost more than 2 percent in value over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin briefly sliding to an intraday low of $76,029.22. The downturn came amid weakness in the U.S. Dollar Index, mixed bond market performance, declines across Wall Street indices, and volatile crude oil prices that initially surged before retreating overnight.
Adding to market attention, software firm Strategy Inc announced Monday that it had purchased 24,869 Bitcoins worth nearly $2 billion between May 11 and May 17. The acquisition raised the company’s total Bitcoin holdings to 843,738 BTC — equivalent to roughly 4.02 percent of Bitcoin’s total circulating supply. The average acquisition price now stands at approximately $75,700 per coin. The purchases were funded through proceeds generated from the company’s at-the-market share sale program. Despite the aggressive accumulation, investor sentiment across the crypto sector remained weak.
Market caution was also reflected in the latest Fear and Greed Index published by CoinMarketCap, which slipped deeper into “fear” territory at 38, compared with 40 a day earlier and 52 a week ago.
According to derivatives data provider CoinGlass, total crypto liquidations surged to $764 million over the past 24 hours. Long positions accounted for $673 million of the wipeout, while short positions represented approximately $90 million.
Overall crypto market capitalization dropped 2.1 percent to $2.54 trillion, although trading activity jumped sharply, with 24-hour trading volume climbing 87 percent to nearly $90 billion. Only eight of the top 100 cryptocurrencies posted gains exceeding 1 percent, while close to 70 digital assets recorded losses of more than 1 percent.
Among notable movers, Kite (KITE) emerged as the strongest performer with a 7.2 percent overnight gain. Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) led declines among major tokens, tumbling nearly 10 percent.
Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency, traded 2.4 percent lower at $76,177.95. The asset remains roughly 40 percent below its all-time high of $126,198.07 reached in October 2025. Bitcoin has also declined 6.2 percent over the past week and is down 13 percent since the start of the year.
Investors were also assessing a recent report from Citigroup that renewed concerns about the long-term threat quantum computing advancements could pose to Bitcoin security infrastructure.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States continued to experience outflows, recording net withdrawals of $290 million on Friday after attracting inflows of $131 million a day earlier. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF accounted for the largest share of withdrawals at $136 million.
Bitcoin has now slipped to 13th place in the global asset rankings by market capitalization, according to data from CompaniesMarketCap, positioning it between Meta Platforms and Samsung.
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 3.8 percent to $2,100.63, leaving it nearly 58 percent below its record peak of $4,953.73 reached in August 2025.
U.S.-listed spot Ethereum ETFs also remained under pressure, with net outflows widening to $66 million on Friday from $6 million the previous session. The iShares Ethereum Trust ETF led withdrawals with $50 million in outflows.
Ethereum’s market capitalization ranking also weakened, slipping four places to 71st globally among all traded assets.
Elsewhere in the market, BNB fell 2.6 percent to $634.95, while XRP declined more than 3 percent to trade at $1.37. Solana lost 2.9 percent to $83.85, and TRON eased 0.9 percent to $0.3541.
Dogecoin suffered one of the steepest losses among leading cryptocurrencies, plunging 6.3 percent to $0.1034, leaving the meme token nearly 86 percent below its all-time high recorded in 2021.
In contrast, Hyperliquid (HYPE) bucked the broader market trend, gaining 2.5 percent over the past 24 hours to trade at $44.81, though it remains about 25 percent below its peak reached in September 2025.
