Global Cryptocurrency Market Cap Plummets 8% Following Iran-Israel Escalation
The value of Bitcoin had a very sharp fall of more than 8.4% on April 13 due to the escalated geopolitics in the Middle East caused by Iran’s airstrikes towards Israel.
Global Cryptocurrency Market Cap Dropped
This flashy drop led to the Bitcoin price plunging from around $67,000 to $61,625, as a result, the market capitalization dropped well over $130 million within minutes of the event.
The same sell-off also led to a decline of Ether to $2,927 (a 9.81% drop) and Solana collapsed to $129 (15.96% loss) as reported by crypto data website CoinMarketCap. Per the same source, the global cryptocurrency market cap dropped from $2.40 trillion to $2.23 trillion, representing an 8.19% decline.
Middle East Escalation: Iran Strikes Israel
As per the media’s news broadcasting from Bloomberg, Iran fired drones toward Israel in a reprisal attack for an initial hit of Damascus Syria, in which 7 Iranians, including two generals, lost their lives.
Along with the airstrikes, there were reports of authorities seizing a cargo vessel belonging to the Israeli billionaire.
US President Joe Biden’s statement on April 12 demanding an end to the increasing dispute and the company’s commitment to Israel to stand up to Iran in case it conducts attacks.
Efforts to Mitigate Conflict: US Intervention
The sharp contrast between tensions between Iran and Israel turns the uniqueness of the region into glaring, with the USA being the main player in lowering conflicts in particular after the war between Israel and Hamas in October.
U.S. officials expressed worries over the aggression on Israel, called for restraint and blamed the Damascus airstrike on the laxity of communication. They claimed that the United States had no prior knowledge of the strike before its execution. Officials also maintained that incoming information was brief, leaving the target area and location obscured.
“Remaining after the Israeli Air Force action was done, we were neither given early or cooperative warnings,” one of the official stated.
“Though Israel notified us a few minutes before the missiles came, yet the time was not enough for our response. We remained unprepared.”