Bitcoin Falls Below $64,000 as Middle East Tensions Deepen Losses

Bitcoin extended its slide, falling below the $64,000 mark.

As of 9:33 a.m. on June 4 in Seoul, Bitcoin traded at $63,666.65 on Binance's USDT market, down 5% from a day earlier. On Upbit's won market, it changed hands at 94.527 million won, down 0.52%.

Major altcoins also weakened. Ether traded at $1,802.07 on Binance, down 3.7% from a day earlier, while XRP fell 2.42% to $1.1949.

The broader selloff came as escalating tensions in the Middle East damped appetite for risk assets. Fears of a military clash between Iran and the U.S. lifted global oil prices and U.S. Treasury yields, prompting selling across digital assets.

Early on June 4, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, said it had attacked a U.S. Air Force base in Kuwait and the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain in retaliation for strikes on an Iranian oil tanker and telecommunications facilities on Qeshm Island. Iran said the operation was a response to recent U.S. military action. The U.S. military had earlier struck radar facilities on Qeshm Island on June 1 and attacked an Iranian oil tanker on June 2.

Sentiment was also weighed down by a disclosure that Strategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, sold 32 Bitcoin last week at an average price of $77,135, raising about $2.5 million. Even so, the sale represented only a small portion of its total holdings of more than 8.43 million Bitcoin, suggesting a limited direct effect on the market.