Bitcoin dumped to $73,200 as long squeezes hit $715M after Trump's bullish posts. Geopolitical risk from US-Iran strikes drove ETF outflows of $733M. Next support at $70,000.
President Donald Trump posted two bullish crypto pledges on Truth Social within hours, then watched the market drop anyway. Bitcoin fell to $73,200, Ethereum slipped below $2,000 for the first time since March, and XRP lost the $1.30 support level. The catalyst was not Washington. It was war.
A fresh exchange of U.S.-Iranian military strikes shattered regional ceasefire hopes, triggering global risk-off sentiment. Short-term traders used the temporary political headline pump to exit positions into cash and gold. This flight to safety triggered aggressive margin liquidations that broke multi-month support zones for several top-tier tokens.
Trump claimed the United States is the “crypto capital of the world” and vowed he will “NEVER let Crypto down.” But the underlying mechanism was not domestic policy. Escalating conflict in the Middle East flipped investor behavior from risk-on to defensive. Bitcoin briefly spiked on the posts, then reversed as institutions sold into the liquidity.
The market was already showing exhaustion before the posts. Both BTC and ETH had drifted below their 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages. The bullish headlines provided the ideal conditions for whales to distribute assets to over-leveraged retail traders.
Trump targeted two specific regulatory pillars:
These are long-term policy goals. They do not change the immediate risk of margin calls and ETF redemptions.
The primary mechanism behind the price drop was institutional selling paired with a derivatives flush. Data from Coinglass revealed that spot Bitcoin ETFs suffered a massive single-day outflow of $733 million, led by BlackRock's IBIT fund shedding over $500 million.
This institutional exit exacerbated a leverage wipeout. The broader crypto market suffered over $744 million in total liquidations within a 12-hour window, with $715 million consisting of forced long liquidations. The bullish headlines acted as a counter-indicator: instead of driving spot demand, they gave large holders the exit liquidity they needed.
Key insight: Trump's posts turned into a liquidity trap for retail longs. The political noise masked the real driver – geopolitical risk forcing a de-leveraging event.
Bitcoin dumped over $2,000 to $73,200. If BTC cannot stabilize above $73,000, analysts warn that a deeper correction toward the psychological floor of $70,000 could trigger a broader capitulation. The asset already lost its 50-day EMA and is testing its 100-day EMA.
Ethereum fell 4.8% to $1,987. After seven consecutive weeks of downward or sideways distribution, the failure to hold the $2,100 support level opened the door for a test of the next structural floor near $1,900. ETH has not closed below $2,000 since March.
XRP dropped 4% to $1.27, breaking below the $1.30 zone that had been strongly defended. The asset faces dual headwinds from stagnant spot ETF inflows and external geopolitical anxieties. Traders now eye the $1.10 horizontal support as the next defensive line.
The risk event is ongoing. The market needs two things to stabilize:
What would make the risk worse:
Traders should treat any political headline as a potential liquidity event rather than a trend change until the geopolitical fog clears. The disconnect between White House rhetoric and market mechanics is likely to persist as long as war risk dominates the macro environment.
For deeper analysis of how geopolitical shocks affect crypto, see Bitcoin (BTC) profile and Ethereum (ETH) profile. The crypto market analysis section tracks ETF flows and liquidation data in real time.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.