Bitcoin Drops to $76,000 After 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 evening, resulting in $762 million in liquidations across 168,336 traders, with $593 million of that amount being on the short side, according to CoinGlass. By Saturday evening in Asia, bitcoin had retreated to $76,091, posting a mere 0.8% gain for the day, as Iran announced the reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz 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, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and aborting its transit. State news agency Nour stated that Hormuz had returned to strict management and control by the armed forces in response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping. Several oil tankers that had been heading towards the strait on the initial reopening news turned back. The breakout rally on Friday culminated in a $590 million shorts rout, with bets on bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by ether shorts at $167. Shorts outweighed longs by nearly four to one, the cleanest short-heavy breakdown in a liquidation event since February. The setup 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 Hormuz reopening on Friday served as the catalyst that flipped the market. Crude oil dropped nearly 10% to $85.90 per barrel on the initial headline, and bitcoin broke above the $76,000-$78,000 zone that has capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash. President Donald Trump later told reporters on Friday night that Iran had agreed to an unlimited suspension of its nuclear program, though Tehran never confirmed the claim. However, none of this survived into Saturday intact. 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 gets another setup to work against. Ether held up better than bitcoin on the retreat, down just 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 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. A loss of the 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 looking to rebuild.