Crypto and stocks tumble after Trump declares ceasefire 'over' following Iran strikes
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- Bitcoin fell more than 2% to around $62,000 and ether posted similar losses after Trump declared the Iran ceasefire 'over' during a NATO address, with the CoinDesk 20 Index dropping 2.9%
- US Central Command struck more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran retaliated with attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain, according to the article
- Altcoins absorbed the heaviest damage, accounting for $350 million of the $450 million in total crypto liquidations, with JUP, ETHFI, and PUMP losing between 5.5% and 9.3% and Solana wiping out its entire July rally to trade back at $77
- US equity futures also fell, with Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 futures dropping as much as 1.5% while the Dollar Index rose on inflation concerns from the reignited Middle East conflict
- Bitcoin derivatives showed traders hedging rather than shorting the rally, with open interest dropping to 730K BTC from 740K and Deribit's one-week options skew jumping to nearly 20% in favor of puts from 16%
- MORPHO bucked the bearish trend, gaining 4% as total value locked on the protocol hit a record 4 million ETH, per DefiLlama data cited in the article
Why it matters: Bitcoin still sits 6% higher this month despite the slide, and the derivatives data shows the sell-off is being driven by market-order selling rather than aggressive futures shorts, suggesting forced de-risking rather than a fundamental shift in positioning. With $350 million of the $450 million in liquidations concentrated in altcoins, the damage was structurally tilted toward the most leveraged, illiquid tokens, leaving majors like Bitcoin and ether more bruised than broken.
