Escalation in the Middle East caused cryptocurrencies to plummet
28 February 17:15
The morning of February 28, 2026, was a critical moment for the cryptocurrency market. After the announcement of a large-scale military operation against Tehran, the crypto market instantly reacted with a sharp decline. In just the first 15 minutes after the start of the attack, positions worth more than $100 million (mainly longs) were liquidated on the market. This is evidenced by trading data.
This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the Ministry of Finance.
The price of Bitcoin plummeted to $63,463. The asset lost 6.59% in a day. Other cryptocurrencies with the largest capitalization also showed a decline.
Ethereum fell by almost 9%. At the same time, Solana (-10.84%) and Cardano (-10.65%) lost the most in value over the past 24 hours.
According to CoinGlass, the daily volume of liquidations on crypto futures exceeded $517 million. More than 152,000 traders were affected by the forced closure of positions. The largest losses were recorded in transactions with Bitcoin and Ethereum. At the same time, the bulk of the liquidations fell on long positions.
The Fear and Greed Index fell by two points compared to the February 27 reading. The current value signals the dominance of pessimistic sentiment in the market and investors’ propensity to sell assets.
February crash
Over the month, the first cryptocurrency lost 28%. The biggest declines were seen in:
- Ethereum (-37.45%),
- Solana (-36.92%),
- BNB (-34.6%),
- XRP (-31.71%).
Strike on Iran
As a reminder, today, February 28, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iran to eliminate security threats.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the introduction of a “state of emergency throughout the country.” According to him, a preemptive strike on Iran was necessary to neutralize existing threats to the state of Israel.
It is known that the attack on Iran is a joint operation by Israel and the United States.
US President Donald Trump said that the United States had launched a military campaign in Iran to eliminate threats from the current regime. The main goal of the operation is to protect the American people and allies.
In response, Iran fired missiles toward Israeli territory.
