Bitcoin Price Drops to $76,000 Following Iran's Closure of Hormuz Strait

The year 2026 witnessed one of its largest short squeezes in a single session. Bitcoin reached $78,000 on Friday, triggering $762 million in liquidations across 168,336 traders, with $593 million of those losses attributed to short positions, according to CoinGlass. However, by Saturday evening in Asia, bitcoin had fallen back to $76,091, representing a mere 0.8% daily increase, after Iran announced the reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. This reversal came less than 24 hours after the Iranian foreign minister declared the strait fully open. Two tanker owners informed Bloomberg that their vessels received Iranian radio transmissions indicating the closure of the waterway, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and subsequently aborting its transit. The state news agency Nour stated that the strait was placed under 'strict management and control by the armed forces' in response to a US blockade of Iranian shipping, prompting several oil tankers to turn back after initially heading towards the strait following the reopening news. Friday's rally ultimately ended in a $590 million rout for shorts, with bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by $167 million in ether shorts. Shorts outnumbered longs by nearly four to one, representing the most significant short-heavy breakdown in a liquidation event since February. The setup for this had been building over weeks, with funding rates on bitcoin perpetuals remaining negative, indicating that shorts were paying longs a premium to maintain their positions. The catalyst for the flip was Friday's Hormuz reopening, which led to a nearly 10% drop in crude oil prices to $85.90 per barrel and pushed bitcoin above the $76,000-$78,000 resistance zone that had capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash. However, President Donald Trump's claim that Iran had agreed to an 'unlimited' suspension of its nuclear program was not confirmed by Tehran, and the situation unfolded differently by Saturday. The market pattern is now familiar, with ceasefire headlines driving rallies, only to be followed by reversal headlines that prevent the breakout from consolidating. The forced unwind sets up another scenario to work against. While bitcoin retreated, ether held up better, declining by only 0.2% over 24 hours, whereas solana dropped 1.3% and dogecoin fell 2.1%. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, XRP leads at 6.4%, BNB added 4.6%, and bitcoin sits at 4.5%. The key question now is whether the $76,000 zone will hold into Monday's open. A clean weekly close above $76,000 would preserve the structural break, even if the peace trade continues to whipsaw the market. A loss of this level, however, would put bitcoin back in the same range it has been trapped in since March, but this time with the short base that just got wiped out looking to rebuild.