The general crypto market is in red following the United States’ move to officially join the Israel vs Iran war. In a major development on Saturday night, the U.S bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, escalating the war further. With the war now on the edge, the crypto market is feeling the heat. 

Bitcoin (BTC) for instance has dropped to $101,000 pushing the plunge to over 8% over the last one month, as per CoinMarketCap data. However, on the day, Bitcoin is only down by over 1%. But for altcoins, the story is different. Led by Ethereum, altcoins have taken the bigger blow with ETH dropping by over 6%, followed by AI tokens and meme coins. 

U.S Airstrikes Iran’s Nuclear Facilities; Crypto Market Reacts

The U.S president Donald Trump, confirmed earlier on June 22 that the United States bombed three nuclear sites in Iran. As per his post on X, he noted that the country’s Air Force blew major facilities namely Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. This marks the first active attack that the U.S have made on Iran as the war with Israel escalates into the second week.  

pic.twitter.com/wu9mMkxtUg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2025

Trump went on to address the nation, warning Iran against further attacks or otherwise the U.S would continue to strike other Iranian facilities. Despite striking Iran, Trump seeks Iran to seize fire on Israel with an aim to restore peace in the Middle East. 

With the U.S officially joining the war, the crypto market has dropped as expected. As reported earlier by Blockchain News, market participants, including James Wynn, are worried that the war could escalate to WW3 if other nations join the war. In such a case, the crypto market will continue to bleed. 

As at press time, the liquidation data by Coinglass shows that a total of 172,732 traders have been liquidated over the last 24 hours. This pushes the total liquidations over the same period to $682.88 million. 

Over the last 12 hours, Ethereum liquidations totaled $255.63 million, followed by BTC with $129.44 million. Solana, XRP, Pepe (PEPE) and Dogecoin also recorded significant losses. 

Altcoins Take the Bigger Blow!

As the war between Iran and Israel escalates, with the U.S now entering the war, altcoins have crashed harder. As per CoinMarketCap data, Ethereum is currently trading at $2,265, dropping to this level for the first time in a month. Additionally, other coins have also recorded losses with top 20 altcoins with more than 5% dip including Cardano (ADA), SUI and Chainlink (LINK). 

However, leading the dip in the altcoin plunge are AI agent tokens and memecoins. AI agent token, for instance, Injective (INJ) is leading with a 11.29% dip over the last 24 hours. Virtuals Protocol follows in with a 11.36% plunge in the same period. 

Meme coins are also feeling the heat with Pepe (PEPE) down over 8%. Dogwifhat and Floki have also recorded over 8% plunge on the day. But, with BTC only experiencing a small dip, investors might be fleeing altcoins into BTC as a safer haven. 

With the overall crypto market now in turmoil, market participants await Iran’s reaction to the recent bombings by the U.S. Any retaliation or other nations like China and Russia joining the Israel-Iran war could escalate the tensions further. In such a case Bitcoin as well as altcoins could face more turmoil.