Bitcoin Retreats to $76,000 Following Iran's Reversal on Hormuz

The year 2026 witnessed one of its most substantial short squeezes, which occurred within a single trading session. Bitcoin's price surged to $78,000 on Friday, triggering the liquidation of $762 million in positions across 168,336 traders, with $593 million of those being short positions, according to CoinGlass. However, by Saturday evening, bitcoin had fallen back to $76,091, representing a mere 0.8% increase for the day, as news broke that Iran had once again closed the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic, less than 24 hours after announcing its reopening. This development was reportedly in response to a US blockade of Iranian shipping, with state news agency Nour stating that the strait had returned to 'strict management and control by the armed forces'. Two tanker owners confirmed to Bloomberg that their vessels had received Iranian radio transmissions indicating the closure of the waterway, with one supertanker even reporting gunfire and subsequently aborting its transit. The initial reopening of the strait on Friday had sparked a rally, which ultimately ended in a $590 million rout for short positions, with bitcoin accounting for $381 million of the liquidations, followed by ether at $167 million. The funding rates for bitcoin perpetuals had been negative for weeks, indicating that shorts were paying longs a premium to maintain their positions. The catalyst for the rally was the news of the strait's reopening, which led to a nearly 10% drop in crude oil prices to $85.90 per barrel and propelled bitcoin above the $76,000-$78,000 resistance zone that had capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash. However, the rally was short-lived, as the market pattern of a ceasefire-driven rally followed by a reversal has become all too familiar. The forced unwind of positions has created another setup for the market to work against. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as solana and dogecoin experienced a retreat, ether held up relatively better, with a 0.2% decline over 24 hours. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, with XRP leading at 6.4%, BNB adding 4.6%, and bitcoin sitting at 4.5%. The question now is whether the $76,000 level will hold into the start of the new week. A clean weekly close above $76,000 would preserve the structural break, even if the peace trade continues to whipsaw the market. Conversely, a loss of this level would see bitcoin return to the same range it has been trapped in since March, albeit with the short base that was recently wiped out looking to rebuild.