Bitcoin Hits $73,761 Before A Stunning Recovery

Bitcoin plunged below 74,000 dollars before quickly erasing part of its losses, after two news items concerning Nvidia and Iran. More than just an episode of volatility, this movement shows that crypto now serves as a leading market when Wall Street is closed, even if it means sharply revising its initial verdict a few hours later.

Two alerts are enough to make bitcoin fall

On the night from Sunday to Monday, bitcoin fell to about 73,761 dollars, its lowest level since August, before rising back above 75,000 dollars. Ether followed a similar move. It briefly dropped below 2,100 dollars, then rebounded toward 2,140 dollars.

The reaction was triggered by two pieces of information unrelated to cryptocurrencies directly. Their common point lies in their ability to quickly change the global appetite for risk.

The market had to absorb simultaneously :

• An internal investigation opened at Nvidia concerning Jensen Huang ;
• Suspicions of foreign interference surrounding a relationship of the executive ;
• No progress in talks between Washington and Tehran ;
• The fear of new tensions on oil and inflation.

Jensen Huang admitted to Nvidia employees that he was unfaithful to his wife. However, the board of directors is investigating a more sensitive issue: was the executive the target of a foreign intelligence operation? Nvidia states it has no evidence indicating that trade secrets or national security information were compromised.

The issue goes beyond the executive’s private life. Nvidia has become the main barometer of the investment cycle in artificial intelligence. Any uncertainty concerning its governance, relations with Washington, or exports to China can therefore weigh on all risky assets.

At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called certain Iranian demands unacceptable and unrealistic. The apparent failure of negotiations increased fears of rising tensions in the Middle East.

Crypto sets a first price before Wall Street

Bitcoin and crypto markets trade continuously, unlike American stocks. When important information emerges on Sunday, they become one of the few places where investors can immediately reduce their risk exposure.

The drop in BTC does not necessarily mean that news about Nvidia or Iran reduces its fundamental value. It may simply reflect an urgent liquidity search in a market accessible at any hour.

Tokens representing American stocks have strengthened this anticipatory role. The NVDAX, a tokenized product tracking Nvidia, lost about 3.55% while the underlying stock was still closed. It thus indicated the expected drop at Nasdaq’s opening. Nvidia indeed fell nearly 5% in pre-market trading.

This warning market function has a major limitation though. Weekend trading is usually less deep. A relatively large sale can therefore move prices more and trigger cascading liquidations.

The rapid rebound of bitcoin above 75,000 dollars suggests that the first reaction was excessive. About 75 minutes were enough to buy back most of the drop. Markets then tempered the geopolitical scenario: oil prices fell Monday after Donald Trump ruled out immediate escalation with Iran.

Leverage turns each alert into an extreme movement

The main consequence of this back-and-forth concerns investors using leverage. More than one billion dollars in crypto positions were liquidated in twenty-four hours, including about 913 million dollars in bullish bets.

Ether suffered nearly 448 million dollars in liquidations, compared to 272 million dollars for bitcoin. The largest automatically closed position also concerned ETH, for about 48 million dollars. These figures show that the violence of the movement came as much from traders’ positioning as from the news itself.

After the drop, futures saw a strong increase in volumes while open interest decreased. This mix signals that many positions were closed and part of the capital left the market. Bitcoin’s one-week implied volatility also rose from about 33% to 43%, while demand for options protecting against further decline increased significantly.

BTC is now bracketed by its 200-day moving average near 73,150 dollars and its 100-day average around 77,430 dollars. As long as it moves between these two levels, each external news can trigger a sharp move without giving a lasting direction.

The real lesson is therefore not that Nvidia or Iran control bitcoin. The crypto market has become the first place where investors express their fear when traditional markets are closed. But in a low liquidity and highly leveraged environment, this first price looks more like an alarm than a definitive verdict.