Bitcoin Drops to $76,000 as Iran Reverses Hormuz Reopening

The year 2026 witnessed one of its largest short squeezes in a single session. Bitcoin surged to $78,000 on Friday, triggering $762 million in liquidations across 168,336 traders, with $593 million of that amount being on the short side, according to CoinGlass. However, by Saturday evening, bitcoin had retreated to $76,091, posting a modest 0.8% gain for the day, after Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz was once again closed to maritime traffic, less than 24 hours after its foreign minister declared it fully open. Two tanker owners informed Bloomberg that their vessels received Iranian radio transmissions indicating the waterway's closure, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and aborting its transit. In response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping, state news agency Nour stated that Hormuz had returned to 'strict management and control by the armed forces.' Several oil tankers that had approached the strait on Friday, following the initial reopening news, turned back. The breakout rally on Friday culminated in a $590 million rout of shorts, with bets on bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by ether shorts at $167 million. Shorts outnumbered longs by nearly four to one, representing the cleanest short-heavy breakdown in a liquidation event since February. The setup for this event had been building for weeks, with funding rates on bitcoin perpetuals pinned negative, meaning shorts were paying longs a premium to hold 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 bitcoin breaking above the $76,000-$78,000 zone that had capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash. However, the market pattern is now familiar, where ceasefire headlines drive a rally, but a reversal headline arrives before the breakout can consolidate, resulting in a forced unwind that sets up another challenge. Ether performed better than bitcoin on the retreat, declining by only 0.2% over 24 hours, while 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 experience whipsaws. A loss of this level would put bitcoin back in the same range it has been trapped in since March, only this time with the short base that just got wiped out looking to rebuild.