Bitcoin BTC -0.44% , ether and other major cryptocurrencies fell in the past hour following reports of Israeli missiles hitting a site in Iran, which a U.S. official confirmed with ABC News.
The market may be expecting a greater global conflict as explosions have been reported in Iraq and Syria, according to ABC, but U.S. officials have not yet confirmed.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell 2.64% to $60,726 in the last hour, while ether lost 3.6% to dip below the $3,000 resistance line, according to The Block’s price page. Ether was changing hands at $2,925 at publication time.
Most other crypto tokens have lost 3% or more in value in the last hour, which may indicate that investors are rushing to pull out of what they deem to be risky assets.
“Continued geopolitical unrest may fuel further risk-off sentiment in financial markets, potentially leading to continued selling pressure on cryptocurrencies as investors seek safer assets,” BTC Markets’ Head of Marketing Rachael Lucas told The Block. “This could overshadow the bull run that cryptocurrencies have been experiencing in the first quarter of the year.”
On the other hand, Lucas said there is also a chance that investors could later turn to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an alternative store of value in case tensions further arise in the region.
The GMCI30, an index representing a selection of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, fell 2.50% over the last 24 hours.
In the past weekend, the crypto market experienced a sharp decline along with other risk asset markets after Israel claimed that Iran had launched “dozens” of drone attacks towards the country. Bitcoin saw a selloff of about 8%, while ether saw around 9%. U.S. stocks also fell on the following Monday on wider concerns of conflict escalation between Israel and Iran.
