Bitcoin Hits the Brakes at $64K After $65.5K Joyride Meets Middle East Reality Check 🪂

Bitcoin retreated to $64,162.29 after touching a monthly high of $65,500 on Wednesday, with profit-taking and reports of Iranian strikes on U.S. military bases in neighboring Gulf states on Thursday dragging the broader crypto market lower. The decline marks a reversal for BTC, which had climbed to its highest level since mid-June before sellers stepped in. U.S. equity futures added to the risk-off tone, with Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.25%, extending a downtrend that began 30 days ago.

Ether (ETH) underperformed bitcoin, falling 1.7% since midnight UTC compared with bitcoin's 1.1% drop. Open interest in ether futures slipped to 14.35 million ETH from a five-week high of 14.45 million ETH hit Wednesday, indicating that bullish positions are being unwound rather than replaced by aggressive new short selling. BTC futures showed a similar pattern, with open interest easing from recent highs.

Among major altcoins, XRP posted a 0.6% decline in spot terms while futures open interest climbed to a 10-day high of 2.21 billion XRP, a combination typically associated with growing bearish exposure. Positive funding rates partly offset that interpretation, though the 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) for XRP was negative, suggesting short positions are being executed via market orders rather than passive limit orders. Sui's native token, SUI, saw open interest rise 15% to 654 million tokens, even as its total remained in line with levels seen earlier this month.

Tokens PUMP and ZEC each fell 4.4% after their Tuesday rallies faded, underscoring thin liquidity on both sides of the book. MORPHO was the standout gainer, rising 3.5% as it approached the $2.20 resistance level. The Robinhood Chain memecoin CASHCAT drew attention as its market cap retreated to $91 million from a first-week peak of $220 million.