Bitcoin breaks below $83,000 as oil jumps on Iran strike-plan report

Bitcoin fell 1.6% to just under $82,800 as of Thursday Asian morning hours. Oil jumped on a report that the White House asked the Pentagon for strike options against Iran, pushing Treasury yields back toward their highest since 2002.

XRP led the losses among the majors, down nearly 4% to about $1.42. DOGE slid 3% to just under 9 cents and ether lost 3% to about $2,570. HYPE and SOL each fell more than 2%, and ZEC slipped less than 1%. BNB and TRX were the only gainers, each up less than 1%, according to CoinDesk data.

The drop takes bitcoin below $83,000, the recent low that FxPro said on Tuesday would confirm sellers had taken control. The firm said a break there could send bitcoin to $80,000 “fairly quickly.”

It comes a day after about $550 million in leveraged crypto bets were wiped out, mostly from traders betting on higher prices, according to CoinGlass data.

Brent rose 2% to above $102 a barrel. Besides the Iran report, a storm shut some U.S. oil output, and Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck two airports in Saudi Arabia, killing three people. The jump in crude pushed the 10-year Treasury yield up two basis points to 5.31%.

Stocks pulled back from their records. Wall Street benchmarks slipped Wednesday, a day after closing at all-time highs, and Asian shares followed with a 1% decline. MSCI’s All Country World Index fell 0.2% and is now further from the record it came within 1.5% of earlier this week.

Bitcoin’s last two losing days both came as oil climbed and yields rose. A drop in Brent back below $100, where it traded on Tuesday, would take that pressure off.