Former President Trump announced on Truth Social on the 21st that he had "completed a very successful attack on Iran's three nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan". According to defense officials, the attack involved B-2 stealth bombers striking the Fordow uranium enrichment facility, while Tomahawk missiles launched from submarines were used on Natanz and Isfahan.
Trump warned that "any retaliation by Iran will be met with much greater force than what was witnessed tonight", while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi countered by saying he "has all options available" to defend national sovereignty and that there would be "permanent consequences".
As this news spread, the 24-hour digital asset market immediately crashed. According to CoinGlass data, a total of $710 million in liquidations occurred within 24 hours, with $618.7 million (87%) being long position liquidations. A total of 172,853 traders were forcibly liquidated, with two-thirds of the liquidations concentrated on Bybit and Binance exchanges.
Among individual cryptocurrencies, Ethereum was hit the hardest. Ethereum dropped 7.4% in 24 hours to $2,260, with liquidations reaching $296 million. Bitcoin relatively held up, declining 1.4% and closing at $102,418, with liquidations of $152 million. Cardano also fell 7.1% among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
According to CoinGecko data, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased by 4.4% in one day to $3.25 trillion. Major altcoins like Solana, Ripple, and Dogecoin also experienced losses of over $22 million each.
Investor sentiment also rapidly deteriorated. On the decentralized prediction market platform Myriad, the percentage of those expecting Ethereum to fall below $2,000 by year-end increased from 50% to over 70% in just a few days. On Polymarket, the possibility of Iran blocking the Hormuz Strait jumped from 9% to 46%, rising to 57% if the timeframe is extended to year-end.
With traditional financial markets closed for the weekend, the 24-hour digital asset market was the only one to immediately react to this geopolitical event. The industry anticipates additional market volatility when Asian and European markets open on Monday.
