Bitcoin was down 3% over the past 24 hours, while altcoin majors such as SOL, AVAX, DOT and NEAR racked up 5%-10% losses.
“War news” rarely have sustainable negative impact on asset prices, Swissblock analysts wrote.
Cryptocurrencies tumbled during the Tuesday U.S. session as headlines of escalating tension in the Middle East prompted investors to flee risk assets.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest digital asset by market cap, climbed to around $64,000 during European hours before quickly tumbling to $62,500 as Axios reported the White House as having indications Iran was prepping an imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel. Another leg down followed to $61,000 when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Iran launched missiles at the country.
A late-afternoon move lower brought bitcoin’s price to just above the $60,000 level, now having given up nearly all of the gains seen after the U.S. Federal Reserve sparked a big rally with a 50 basis point interest rate cut in mid-September.
The broad-market digital asset benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index was down nearly 5% over the same period, with ether <a href="https://coindesk.com/price/ethereum/" data-position="autolink" title="Ethereum Price