Cryptocurrency markets entered the weekend under heavy pressure on Saturday as escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East collided with a broad wave of leveraged liquidations. Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000, altcoins declined more sharply, and the total crypto market capitalization slipped to $2.69 trillion.
Bitcoin slips below $80,000 as Middle East tensions trigger heavy liquidations
Bitcoin dropped to about $79,700 after The Wall Street Journal reported that US personnel were being evacuated from the Middle East amid intelligence about potential Iranian attacks, according to CoinDesk. Ether, XRP and Solana fell 3-4% over the same period, with altcoins absorbing a larger share of the sell-off.
More than $834 million in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, and long positions accounted for roughly $701 million, or about 84% of the total, Altcoin Buzz reported. The largest liquidations were concentrated in Bitcoin and Ether, according to CryptoPotato.
The move highlighted how quickly macro and geopolitical headlines can translate into forced selling in crypto. With leveraged longs dominating the liquidation data, the market's sensitivity to risk-off events remains elevated.
Institutional flows diverge as Franklin Templeton expands and Arthur Hayes retreats
Franklin Templeton added $150 million in tokenized shares of its sgBENJI fund to the XRP Ledger through two subscriptions of $75 million each, according to CoinDesk. The transactions nearly quadrupled the volume of sgBENJI on the network, and about 193 million shares worth roughly $200 million now sit in a single wallet.
sgBENJI represents a stake in Franklin's Singapore money market fund, making the subscriptions a notable addition of tokenized real-world assets to a public network. The move is relevant for XRP because it deepens the ledger's role in institutional tokenization rather than in speculative trading alone.
On the other side of the market, BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes sold about $22.28 million in liquid positions from his family office Maelstrom, including 6,400 ETH worth about $15.2 million, 14 million ENA worth about $2.76 million and 323,000 UNI worth about $2.24 million. Hayes also closed positions in Ether.fi, Aerodrome Finance, Pendle and Zama and said he had exited all directional trading positions, citing macroeconomic and geopolitical risks, The Defiant reported.
The contrast is instructive: long-term institutional adoption through tokenized funds continued, while one of the market's most visible traders chose to reduce exposure amid uncertainty. That combination can reinforce cautious sentiment even when infrastructure news remains constructive.
Argentina court dismisses LIBRA case against President Milei
A federal court in Argentina dismissed the criminal case against President Javier Milei, his sister and the creator of the LIBRA token, ruling that the facts did not constitute a crime. The case covered 11 people in total, and the court found no criminally significant deception or use of state resources, according to CoinDesk.
The dismissal may still be challenged by private plaintiffs. LIBRA reached a market capitalization of $4.56 billion in February 2025 before collapsing by more than 94%, according to Unchained.
The ruling is a significant precedent for how Latin American courts may treat political involvement in meme coin promotions. It does not resolve the broader debate over accountability when public figures lend visibility to highly speculative assets.
Security incidents hit DeFi protocols and wallet users
Swell froze deposits and withdrawals for swETH and rswETH in order to correct their exchange rates, which had risen 5-6% above the correct levels, according to Unchained. In a separate incident, the Initia blockchain was halted after an attacker exploited a vulnerability in MoveVM to create unbacked tokens and bridge out about $2.7 million in AUSD, ETH and USDC. The chain and its rollups were paused with no restart date announced, Unchained reported.
Both incidents underline the operational and smart-contract risks that remain in DeFi and Layer-1 infrastructure. They also show how quickly teams may restrict withdrawals or halt a network when the integrity of asset pricing or token supply is in question.
Wallet security was another focus. Electrum released version 4.8.3 to fix a critical vulnerability that could be exploited through malicious servers, and users were urged to update, according to The Defiant. Separately, compromised browser extensions for Fearless Wallet on Chrome and Firefox allowed attackers to steal at least 17,286 DOT, BTC-ECHO reported.
Four versions of the Fearless Wallet extension were affected, and the extensions sent private keys and seed phrases to a third-party server over a period of about 20 months. Mobile versions of the wallet are considered safe, but users were advised to move funds to new wallets.
HSBC brings RedCoin stablecoin to PayMe users
HSBC began rolling out its Hong Kong dollar-pegged stablecoin RedCoin, or RCHKD, inside the PayMe app, which has more than 3.3 million users. The token operates on a private ledger run by the bank, according to Decrypt.
The issuer received a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in April 2025. RedCoin can be used for transfers and payments at more than 100,000 PayMe merchants, with about $10.2 million of the token in circulation against reserves of roughly $10.4 million.
The launch is one of the clearest examples so far of a major bank putting a regulated stablecoin into a mass-market consumer app. It also positions Hong Kong's licensed stablecoin framework as a practical payments channel rather than a purely experimental one.
Tokenized stocks face growing issuer resistance
The number of companies objecting to the listing of tokenized versions of their shares on the OKX-ICE platform has reached 22. Wells Fargo, Cisco and Marvell are among the latest to push back, joining McDonald's, Microsoft and Google, according to CoinDesk.
The objections create a practical obstacle for efforts to merge traditional equity exposure with crypto market infrastructure. Without issuer support, tokenized stock products may face legal, branding and compliance questions even where the underlying market infrastructure is technically ready.
Bitcoin treasuries balance purchases against preferred dividends
Preferred shares issued by Bitcoin treasuries have financed the purchase of 135,979 BTC since 2025, and the market for Bitcoin-focused preferred stock is valued at about $12 billion, according to CoinDesk.
Strategy has spent $193 million buying back its STRC preferred shares and increased its authorization to $3 billion while carrying a 12% dividend. The balancing act matters because preferred stock can fund additional Bitcoin accumulation, but it also creates fixed obligations that must be managed through market cycles.
Conclusion
Saturday's session combined a sharp risk-off move in prices with continued institutional tokenization and a steady flow of regulatory and security developments. Bitcoin's brief break below $80,000 and the concentration of liquidations in long positions set a cautious tone, while court rulings, bank-issued stablecoins and issuer resistance to tokenized equities showed that crypto's integration with traditional finance remains uneven and highly contested.