US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly canceled a planned visit to Israel while accompanying President Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. The cancellation came against the backdrop of fresh American military strikes on Iranian targets, a retaliatory response to Iranian attacks on commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
What happened and why crypto traders should care
The US strikes targeted Iranian sites and triggered a reimposition of related sanctions on Iran. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil passes daily, is one of those chokepoints where military friction translates almost immediately into commodity price spikes and broader risk-off sentiment across financial markets.
Traditional stock exchanges were closed when much of this news broke. Crypto markets, which never sleep, tend to absorb geopolitical shocks first.
In both March and June 2026, US military actions targeting Iran correlated with Bitcoin dipping to approximately $63,000 before rebounding. More than $10 million in cryptocurrency reportedly flowed out of Iranian exchanges following those earlier strikes.
