Bitcoin drops 1.4% amid Middle East concerns

The crypto slid 1.4% to $65,137.6, but remained close to a five-week high hit earlier this week after a sharp rebound from annual lows

Bitcoin edged lower on Thursday, remaining close to recent highs amid concerns over the Middle East war, while markets also digested latest cues from a new draft of a key U.S. regulatory act.

The crypto slid 1.4% to $65,137.6 by 22:02 GMT, but remained close to a five-week high hit earlier this week after a sharp rebound from annual lows. Broader cryptocurrency prices also gained in tow.

But a crypto recovery stalled in the face of an escalation in the Iran-U.S. war, as the two exchanged tit-for-tat strikes for a twelfth consecutive day and as Yemen’s Houthi group opened up a new front in the Red Sea.

A new draft of the Clarity Act circulated in Washington on Wednesday, marking what lawmakers called a step toward a final Senate vote on the long-delayed crypto market structure bill.

The draft included a provision barring the president and other senior officials from crypto conflicts of interest, though the measure would sunset in 2029 and gave regulators a year to implement it.

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX plans to wind down operations in September, telling customers to withdraw their assets ahead of the shutdown.

The platform, owned by HDR Global Trading, said the move follows a strategic review of the business and the broader ⁠crypto industry but didn’t elaborate further. It gave users until September 23 to close open positions and pull their funds.

The closure comes after a turbulent stretch for BitMEX’s founders. Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering rules, admitting they had failed to put compliant safeguards in place at the exchange. Prosecutors alleged the trio and the company had knowingly skirted the Bank Secrecy Act between 2015 and 2020 by not implementing required anti-money-laundering and customer-verification protocols.