Bitcoin broke below $73,000 for the first time in months on May 28, 2026, after U.S. Central Command carried out airstrikes on an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz, unwinding weeks of ceasefire optimism in a single session and flushing nearly a billion dollars in leveraged crypto positions.

Bitcoin traded at $72,978 in Asian hours, having touched a low of $72,912, down 3.4% over 24 hours, per CoinDesk price data. Ether fell 4.2% to $1,976, losing the $2,000 level. Solana dropped 3.5% to $80.57, XRP slid 3.6% to $1.28, and Dogecoin lost 3.2% to $0.0979.

The move liquidated $958.8 million across 167,706 traders in 24 hours, per CoinGlass data. Long positions accounted for $897 million of that — 93% of total liquidations — against $61 million from shorts. Bitcoin liquidations led by asset at $386 million, followed by ether at $246 million. The largest single order was a $15.34 million BTC position on Hyperliquid.

A 93% long skew on a near-billion-dollar flush is the signature of a market caught leaning into a recovery. Leveraged positioning that built through the mid-May range got cleared in one session once the floor broke.

What happened militarily. CENTCOM struck an Iranian military site near the Strait of Hormuz and shot down four one-way Iranian attack drones fired at a commercial vessel — described by a U.S. official as a defensive action to maintain the ceasefire that began last month, per the CoinDesk report citing official statements. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it targeted the U.S. airbase the strikes originated from. Kuwait reported its air defenses intercepting incoming missiles and drones.

On the diplomatic side, the U.S. Treasury imposed new sanctions on Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, accusing it of extorting vessels transiting the waterway. President Trump, speaking at a cabinet meeting, framed the U.S. posture plainly: "It's international waters. The strait's going to be open to everybody."

Cross-asset reaction. The selloff was not isolated to crypto. The MSCI All Country World Index pulled back 0.4% from a record high. A gauge of Asian shares dropped 1.7%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures pointed lower. Oil climbed as the strike clouded the timeline for any deal to reopen the strait.

What broke and why. Bitcoin had held above $74,000 through several prior weeks of Iran headline risk, with the market pricing the ceasefire as durable. Thursday's strikes reopened that uncertainty. The combination of a geopolitical shock, a structurally long derivatives book, and thinner Asian-hours liquidity produced a rapid cascade: price broke the $74,000 floor, stops triggered, and liquidations compounded the move. The speed — a flush of this scale inside a single session — reflects how much leverage had accumulated on the assumption the range would hold.

Sources: CoinDesk (price data, event reporting, published May 28, 2026, 4:25 AM UTC — https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/28/bitcoin-drops-below-usd73-000-as-us-strikes-on-iran-spark-usd1-billion-liquidations); CoinGlass (liquidation figures — https://www.coinglass.com/liquidation-chart).