Bitcoin dropped below the $68,000 mark on Friday morning, slipping further in the last 24 hours as markets continued to face uncertainty stemming from Middle East tensions.
U.S. President Donald Trump pushed back his deadline for Iran to agree to a ceasefire by 10 days and said negotiations were progressing very well, which briefly eased tensions and sent Brent crude to $106.
However, that optimism faded after reports revealed that the Pentagon was considering deploying as many as 10,000 more ground troops to the Middle East.
As of 9:37 GMT, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading 1.48 percent lower at $67,761. Meanwhile, Ether was down 0.67 percent at $2,045.67
Crypto market cap declines to $2.4 trillion
As Bitcoin declined, the broader crypto market lost nearly 1 percent, bringing total market capitalization down to $2.4 trillion. Solana declined 3.54 percent to $85.017, while XRP dropped 2.06 percent to $1.3448, extending its weekly loss to 6.94 percent.
BNB was down 1.60 percent at $620, and Dogecoin fell 0.59 percent to $0.091. Tron stood out as the only major token in positive territory, rising 0.28 percent to $0.313417 and marking a weekly rise of 1.26 percent.
Risk sentiment improved slightly after U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday delayed a planned attack on Iran’s main energy facilities and said negotiations with Tehran were moving forward.
Iran, however, said only that it was considering a 15-point U.S. ceasefire proposal and dismissed the possibility of direct negotiations with Washington.
Still, there were a few indications that tensions were easing, with the conflict moving into a fifth straight week.
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Clarity Act draft impacts market sentiment
U.S. regulations also impacted market sentiment and Bitcoin prices this week, with participants across the crypto industry responding in different ways to the latest draft of the long-awaited Clarity Act. One of the main sticking points in the Clarity Act, which is intended to create a formal regulatory framework for crypto, is how yield payments on stablecoin deposits should be treated.
Large U.S. banks have generally pushed for tighter oversight of such payments, or even a full ban, arguing that they could pose broader systemic risks.
Meanwhile, crypto advocates, led in particular by Coinbase, have taken the opposite view, saying that restricting stablecoin yield payments would hurt the United States’ competitive position. Coinbase’s objections have also emerged as a major obstacle to the bill’s advancement in Congress.
