Bitcoin Crashes to $73,000 While Stellar (XLM) Defies Downturn With a 19% Surge: Market Watch

Bitcoin’s price declines as almost the complete entirety of altcoins is trading in the red.

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Crypto markets took a turn for the worse today, losing more than $100 million in total market capitalization.

This comes on the back of sharp intraday declines in Bitcoin, as well as the majority of large-cap cryptocurrencies. Derivatives markets also felt the pressure as liquidations surpassed $1 billion – a massive 24-hour increase.

Bitcoin Price Tumbles to $73K, What’s Next?

As soon as news that the US has resumed strikes on Iran and the latter retaliated immediately broke, the crypto market tanked.

Bitcoin is no exception. As the leading cryptocurrency, its price tumbled by more than 3.5% on the day, losing over $ 2,000 and reaching an intraday low below $73,000 before recovering slightly to its current level.

The consensus is that the drop is largely attributable to the military escalation, but it’s also worth noting that a massive $1.3 billion block sale took place the other day, in which someone liquidated a whopping 29 million shares of BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF. It’s the largest single-day sale in the product’s history, executed just before today’s drop.

Legacy markets remain relatively flat, with the S&P 500 holding its position, suggesting that Wall Street doesn’t seem to take what’s happening between the US and Iran right now very seriously. Oil prices have also initially increased but then started to decline.

Stellar (XLM) Prints 18% Daily as Altcoins Falter

As you can see in the heatmap below, the altcoin market is almost entirely painted red. Pretty much all of the major altcoins are charting considerable losses, more or less in line with Bitcoin.

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For instance, BNB, XRP, ETH, DOGE, LTC, AVAX, and many others are down between 3% and 4%, while other coins like TRX, HYPE, and TAO are down more than 6%.

One that stands out from the crowd is Stellar. XLM is up by a whopping 19%, at the time of this writing, completely decoupling from the rest of the market. Other good performers include RAIN, which is up by 9%, building further on yesterday’s gains.