Fears of a renewed escalation in the Middle East conflict rattled sentiment in the cryptocurrency market. Overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has declined more than 2 percent in the past 24 hours while Bitcoin dropped to a 24-hour low of $76,029.22.
The price movement in the cryptocurrency market comes amidst an overnight decline in the Dollar Index, a mixed trading pattern in the bond market, a slippage in Wall Street indexes, a surge of more than a percent in crude oil prices and an overnight decline in crude oil prices.
Virginia-headquartered Strategy Inc (MSTR) on Monday said it acquired 24,869 Bitcoins worth $2 billion during the period between May 11 and May 17. The leading Bitcoin treasury company led by Michael Saylor has lifted its total holdings of Bitcoins to 843,738 or 4.02 percent of Bitcoin's total supply. The average cost of the holdings now stands at $75,700. The purchases were made using proceeds from the sale of shares under its at-the-market offering program. However, the mammoth purchase did not suffice to improve the sentiment in the crypto market.
The risk aversion is reflected in CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index. The index has slipped to the "fear" territory with a decline to 38 from 40 (neutral) a day earlier and 52 (neutral) a week earlier.
Data for the past 24 hours from Coinglass shows crypto liquidations, i.e. the forced closure of a trader's leveraged position by an exchange or lending protocol for insufficient funds (margin or collateral) to cover potential losses, rising to $764 million. This comprises long positions of $673 million and short positions of $90 million.
Overall crypto market capitalization has declined 2.1 percent in the past 24 hours to $2.54 trillion. The 24-hour trading volume has however increased 87 percent to $90 billion. Only 8 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies are trading with overnight gains of more than a percent whereas close to 70 are trading with overnight losses of more than a percent.
94th ranked Kite (KITE) tops gains with an overnight surge of 7.2 percent whereas 14th ranked Bitcoin Cash (BCH) tops overnight losses with a decline of close to 10 percent.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency is trading 2.4 percent lower at $76,177.95. The current price is around 40 percent below the all-time high of $126,198.07 recorded on October 7, 2025. The original cryptocurrency has lost 6.2 percent in the past week and 13 percent on a year-to-date basis.
Markets also digested a recent report by Citi that reiterated the threat to Bitcoin from advancements in quantum computing.
Bitcoin Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net outflows of $290 million on Friday versus net inflows of $131 million on Thursday. iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) topped with net outflows of $136 million.
Bitcoin has slipped to the 13th rank in the global ranking of all assets as per market capitalization published by companiesmarketcap.com and is now positioned between Meta Platforms ranked 12th and Samsung ranked 14th.
Ethereum (ETH) declined 3.8 percent overnight as it traded at $2,100.63. The leading alternate coin is trading 58 percent below the all-time-high of $4,953.73 recorded on August 25, 2025.
Ethereum Spot ETF products in the U.S. witnessed net outflows further increasing to $66 million on Friday from $6 million on Thursday iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) topped with outflows of $50 million.
Ethereum has slipped 4 notches to the 71st position in the global ranking of all assets as per market capitalization published by companiesmarketcap.com.
4th ranked BNB (BNB) slipped 2.6 percent overnight resulting in price decreasing to $634.95. BNB is trading 54 percent below the all-time high of $1,370.55 touched on October 13, 2025.
5th ranked XRP (XRP) lost more than 3 percent overnight and is currently trading at $1.37, around 64 percent below the all-time high of $3.84 touched on January 4, 2018. The price of 7th ranked Solana (SOL) dropped 2.9 percent overnight to $83.85. SOL's current price is around 72 percent below its all-time-high of $294.33 recorded on January 19, 2025.
TRON (TRX) ranked 8th overall declined 0.9 percent overnight and is currently changing hands at $0.3541. The trading price is 20 percent below the cryptocurrency's all-time high of $0.4407 recorded on December 4, 2024.
9th ranked Dogecoin (DOGE) plunged 6.3 percent overnight and is currently trading at $0.1034. DOGE is trading 86 percent below the peak price of $0.7376 recorded on May 8, 2021.
10th ranked Hyperliquid (HYPE) however jumped 2.5 percent in the past 24 hours. HYPE is trading at $44.81, around 25 percent below the all-time high of $59.39 recorded on September 18, 2025.
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Technology News
May 15, 2026 15:25 ET Apart from the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair, the main news on the economics front this week included key price data from the U.S. and the first quarter economic growth figures from major economies. Both consumer prices and producer costs have started to reflect the effect of supply shocks due to the Middle East conflict. In Europe, GDP data was in focus, while inflation data from China dominated the news flow in Asia.