According to the official press release, the funds were connected to scams where victims were lured in with promises of “romance, fake profits, and a side of cryptocurrency.” Because who doesn’t want a boyfriend who also doubles as a financial advisor?
So, the rally decided to take a nap after three days of non-stop partying. Spot bitcoin ETFs were like, “Nah, we’re good,” and slipped into negative territory with a $27.55 million outflow. Blame it on Blackrock’s IBIT, which threw a $32.71 million tantrum and stormed out. Rude.
By the time someone noticed, $4.8 million had already been siphoned out faster than a government employee’s patience at a coffee machine.
Enter Peter Schiff, the Cassandra of the cryptocurrency age, whose every tweet is a funeral dirge for Bitcoin bulls. With the gravity of a man who has seen the future, he poked at the fragile edifice of digital faith while gold and silver, those stoic relics of human greed, danced in triumph. Gold, that ancient custodian of despair, closed at $5,278, a number so round and regal it could have been carved on a pharaoh’s tomb. Silver, its scrappy cousin, added $5.50 to $93.66, as if to say, “We’ve done this before, and we’ll do it again.”
So, here we are, with six lucky (or should I say, well-informed?) Polymarket accounts pocketing $1.2 million after correctly betting that the U.S. would strike Iran on February 28. And how did they know? Well, according to blockchain detectives at Bubblemaps, these accounts had funds flowing in within 24 hours of the attack, and-surprise!-they bought “Yes” shares in the “U.S. strikes Iran by February 28, 2026?” market just hours before the explosions rocked Tehran. How convenient!
Yet there is more! The bitcoin-to-gold ratio now languishes at 12.288 ounces, a 70% drawdown over 14 months-a statistic so grim it could make a monk weep into his rosary.
Lo, the sacred scrolls of CryptoRank reveal that Dogecoin’s February average is naught but -3.32%, a number so bleak it could make a gloomy poet weep. The 48-hour glimmer of hope, like a flickering candle in a storm, hath been snuffed out by the crypto market’s wrath, which hath descended with a 5.5% plunge. Thus, the dream of breaking the loss streak is dashed, as a fly swats a candle.
A joint aerial incursion by American and Israeli forces upon Iran occurred at the break of dawn, which saw Bitcoin’s value spiral downward from $65,500 to $63,000 within the span of a single hour. Ethereum, ever the loyal companion, slid to around $1,850. Approximately $75 billion in total crypto market cap vanished before most traders even stirred from their beds, a feat rivaling the swiftness of a well-timed espresso shot.
On the 27th of February, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) bled $32.99 million, a sum equivalent to 499 BTC. A single day’s outflow, yet how it echoes! Still, IBIT remains the darling of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, a phoenix amidst the ashes. Only a day prior, it had basked in the glow of $275.8 million in inflows, following $297.4 million and $78.9 million in the days before. Such is the rhythm of the market-a waltz of greed and fear.
The CoinMarketCap 20 Index, that chorus of altcoins, wailed in unison, a 4.70% lament, proving this was no solitary tragedy but a grand opera of sell-offs. And what provoked this financial aria? Ah, the Middle East, that eternal cauldron of chaos, where Israel and Iran exchanged not words but strikes, sending ripples through energy markets, equities, and the tender heart of crypto. Geopolitics, that old maestro, conducts the orchestra of risk assets with a baton dipped in uncertainty.