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Bitcoin sinks below $71k as Powell\u2019s hawkish tone and Iran\u2019s oil shock trigger a $542M liquidation wave across leveraged crypto markets.<\/p>\n
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Crypto markets extended their slide into Thursday as the combined aftershock of the Federal Reserve\u2019s March policy meeting and an escalating oil shock from the Iran conflict continued to rattle risk assets. Bitcoin (BTC) fell to approximately $71,313 (-4.62%), Ethereum dropped to $2,201 (-5.92%), and a cascade of leveraged long positions was wiped out \u2014 with total network-wide liquidations reaching $542 million over 24 hours, of which $448 million were long positions. It was the largest liquidation event in weeks, and the most heavily one-sided since the early stages of the U.S.-Iran conflict in late February.<\/a>\u200b<\/p>\n The proximate trigger was Wednesday\u2019s Federal Open Market Committee decision and, more critically, the press conference that followed. The Fed held its benchmark rate at 3.5%\u20133.75% as universally expected, with the FOMC voting 11-1 to maintain that range. But the new Summary of Economic Projections \u2014 the first of 2026 \u2014 delivered the information markets least wanted to hear. The Fed raised its 2026 PCE inflation forecast to 2.7%, up from a prior estimate of 2.4%, citing the oil shock stemming from Iran\u2019s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as a direct driver. The dot plot\u2019s median remained anchored at just one 25-basis-point cut for all of 2026, dashing residual hopes for a more accommodative path.<\/p>\n Fed Chair Jerome Powell was unambiguous in his press conference. \u201cThe oil shock for sure shows up,\u201d he said, referring to its impact on the central bank\u2019s projections. In his opening statement, he noted that near-term inflation expectations \u201chave risen in recent weeks, likely reflecting the substantial rise in oil prices caused by the supply\u201d disruption \u2014 a reference to the Hormuz closure that has taken roughly 20% of global oil flows offline since late February. Core PCE rose 3.0% in the 12 months through February, well above the Fed\u2019s 2% target. Powell rejected comparisons to 1970s stagflation, arguing unemployment remains near normal levels, but acknowledged the tension between the Fed\u2019s dual mandate goals in the current environment.\u200b<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The market reaction was swift and familiar. Bitcoin dropped from approximately $74,000 to $70,900 within hours of the press conference \u2014 its eighth decline following an FOMC meeting out of the last nine. The Nasdaq closed down 1.5% on Wednesday, the Dow and S&P 500 reversed five consecutive sessions of gains to hit their lowest levels since November, and 10-year Treasury yields climbed more than 5 basis points. On Thursday, the selloff continued, with the Dow opening down 420 points (-0.91%), the S&P 500 -0.89%, and the Nasdaq -1.23%.<\/p>\n The liquidation breakdown tells its own story: Bitcoin longs alone accounted for $172 million in forced selling, ETH longs for $126 million, with a total of 143,776 traders liquidated globally. The largest single liquidation \u2014 an ETH position worth $17.98 million on Aster \u2014 underscores how aggressively leveraged some participants were ahead of the FOMC. Long-term Bitcoin holders were also reported to have sold over 1,650 BTC worth approximately $117 million in the wake of Powell\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n With Brent crude now above $110 per barrel following renewed Iranian attacks on regional energy facilities, and a Fed that has explicitly incorporated oil-driven inflation into its baseline forecast, the conditions for a near-term rate cut have seldom looked more remote.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bitcoin sinks below $71k as Powell\u2019s hawkish tone and Iran\u2019s oil shock trigger a $542M liquidation wave across leveraged crypto markets. Summary Bitcoin drops to about $71,313, Ethereum to $2,201,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24095,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions\/24095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Powell Names the Oil Shock. Markets Hear the Rest.<\/h1>\n