Bitcoin fell below the $80,000 level on May 7, sliding from a multi-month high of $82,833 to an intraday low of $79,500 and erasing the gains it had built earlier in the week.
The daily move unfolded in stages. After coming under pressure from sellers on Wednesday afternoon, bitcoin lost about $1,000 in a gradual decline from midday to midnight and briefly found support near $80,700. A pre-dawn rebound pushed the price back to $81,600, but the recovery did not last. Selling accelerated after that, driving the asset down to its session low. At the time referenced in the source, around 1 p.m. EDT, bitcoin had recovered part of the drop but was still trading just under $80,000.
Market value slips as the wider crypto market retreats
The nearly 2% decline pushed bitcoin’s market capitalization below $1.6 trillion, down from an intraday peak of roughly $1.66 trillion reached on Wednesday. The broader crypto market also moved lower, with total market capitalization falling from just above $2.8 trillion to $2.74 trillion.
The retreat tracked weakness seen in Wall Street and came as reports circulated that Iran had rejected the Trump administration’s latest proposal to end the war. According to a post on X cited in the article, Walter Bloomberg relayed comments from senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaei, who said Tehran rejected the proposal because it called for reopening the Strait of Hormuz without including compensation for war damage.
Geopolitical headlines reverse earlier optimism
That development cut through the optimism created earlier by Axios reports saying a deal was close. The article said concerns were building that a prolonged diplomatic deadlock could strengthen hawkish voices in Washington and move the situation closer to direct military confrontation.
Even with the sharp pullback, bitcoin was still up nearly 5% from the start of the month and more than 15% over the previous 30 days at the time of writing.
Liquidations hit leveraged longs across the market
Volatility spilled quickly into derivatives. Over the previous 24 hours, about $91 million in overleveraged bitcoin long positions were liquidated, compared with roughly $12 million in shorts. Across the broader crypto market, liquidations reached nearly $270 million in long bets versus about $90 million in short positions. The imbalance showed that the sell-off hit bullish leveraged positioning far harder than bearish trades.