Bitcoin dips under $60,000 amid worsening Middle East crisis

The price of Bitcoin has been plagued by volatility over the last few weeks. Recently, the price of the asset dropped under its critical support level of $60,000 seeing a loss of about 5%. The volatile movement has been the talk of the crypto sector especially with some analysts attributing it to the escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Bitcoin experiences a massive drop

The price of Bitcoin briefly fell to $59,698 before seeing a slight surge that propelled it above $61,000. Accepting to analytics firm CoinGlass, long positions worth $243 million will be liquidated if the digital asset hits $59,000. In the last 30 hours, over $34 million in long positions on Bitcoin has been wiped off, per data. This recent price volatility is coming amid increasing tensions in Iran.

According to several sources in the country, explosions have been heard at the Isfahan airport in central Iran. A similar reaction was felt in the price of the digital asset when Iran launched an attack on Israel on April 13. During the attack, the price of the leading digital asset dropped by 8.4%. Following the news of the attack, the drop in Bitcoin’s price erased over $130 million in market cap.

Impact of geopolitical factors on BTC’s price

Bitcoin holders have also been anticipating potential volatility as the Bitcoin halving event draws closer. The upcoming halving event is expected to cut the supply of the asset by half and is scheduled to take place on April 20. Also, the Fear and Greed index has dropped by 13 points from its previous greed index of 79.

Bitcoin has been maintaining its price around the $63,000 mark over the last seven days before experiencing a decline of 7.5% to drop from $63,814 to $59,648. Open interest (OI) in BTC has also fallen in the same period, losing 17% to stay at $28 billion. Ethereum is also not finding it easy in the crypto market. Recently, Ethereum experienced a drastic slide of about 5%, falling from its support level of $3,000. The asset briefly touched $2,876 before touching and resting at its support level.