Bitcoin stumbled on Thursday afternoon. The digital asset pulled back from a peak it had not seen in over 3 months. The price fell directly below the important $80,000 mark. At exactly 17:36 Eastern Time, Bitcoin traded down 2% to sit at $79,902.50. This drop interrupted a strong upward trend. Just last month, the world’s largest cryptocurrency surged nearly 12%. Investors bought heavily into the market because they found low prices and hoped for peace in the Middle East.
Geopolitical headlines drove much of the recent price action. Earlier in May, the market looked very optimistic. Leaders from the United States and Iran both told the public that peace negotiations were moving in the right direction. Several news reports indicated that the two countries had almost agreed on a new peace deal. Mediators proposed a simple one-page document containing 14 specific points. This hopeful idea caused a massive rush into risk-driven assets over the past week.
Things changed quickly on Thursday. Iranian officials began issuing mixed messages about the 14-point proposal. These confusing statements made investors nervous. On top of that, media reports claimed the United States military carried out fresh combat strikes. These attacks reportedly hit Iranian locations near the Strait of Hormuz. The sudden return of military violence instantly killed the positive market mood and caused traders to sell their risky assets.
Bitcoin faced another major problem from inside the corporate world. The huge crypto rally stalled right after the asset hit its 3-month high. This happened because a major company, Strategy, signaled it might sell off some of its digital assets. Strategy holds a massive amount of Bitcoin on its corporate balance sheet. The company announced it is actively considering selling a portion of these holdings. This news surprised many people who follow the market daily.
Strategy executives explained their reasoning to the public. The company wants to use sales proceeds to pay cash dividends to its shareholders. Over the past few years, Strategy bought its massive Bitcoin pile by taking on debt and offering new equity. Recently, the company launched a new financial product called the STRETCH preferred share offering. Investors showed massive demand for this product. However, this success means Strategy now owes more regular dividend payments to the people who bought those shares.
Michael Saylor serves as the chairman of Strategy. He spoke about the potential sales but refused to give exact numbers. He did not specify exactly how many coins the company plans to dump on the open market. However, Saylor tried to calm investors down. He noted that his firm fully intends to buy back even more Bitcoin later down the road. Despite his promise, the immediate threat of a massive corporate sell-off pushed prices lower.
Meanwhile, the crypto industry looks forward to a major government update. The White House plans to make a formal announcement regarding a national Bitcoin reserve in the next few weeks. The news outlet Coindesk reported this development on Wednesday. They spoke directly with Patrick Witt. He works as the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets. Witt shared some interesting behind-the-scenes details with the reporters.
Witt told Coindesk that federal workers spent several months busy in the background. The government runs an ongoing effort to inventory, centralize, and lock down all the Bitcoin the United States already holds. This massive project goes back to a decision made last year. In 2025, President Donald Trump issued a strict executive order. He commanded federal agencies to take all the cryptocurrency that authorities seized from criminals and turn it into a permanent national reserve.
Corporate buyouts also grabbed headlines this week. The parent company of the Kraken crypto exchange is called Payward. On Thursday, Payward leaders announced a massive new deal. The firm agreed to buy a company called Reap Technologies for $600 million. Reap operates out of Hong Kong. Payward made this major purchase to expand its footprint in Asian financial markets significantly. They specifically want to build a better infrastructure for stablecoin payments.
Reap helps businesses move money across international borders. The company uses stablecoin technology to handle these payments quickly. They build a bridge between old-school banking systems and modern digital assets. This helps international money flow much faster. The Reap deal comes right after Payward closed another massive buyout. Recently, Payward purchased a derivatives exchange, Bitnomial, for $550 million. The government fully licenses Bitnomial to handle specialized trading contracts.
Arjun Sethi serves as co-chief executive officer at Payward. He told Bloomberg reporters that his company will pay for the $600 million Reap acquisition using a mix of pure cash and company stock. To make the deal happen, Payward will issue new shares. Sethi noted that this stock issuance values his massive crypto company at $20 billion. These back-to-back purchases demonstrate that Payward wants to expand its product offerings and rapidly enter new countries.
The rest of the cryptocurrency market followed Bitcoin straight down. Broad digital asset prices mostly stalled on Thursday afternoon. Ether holds the spot as the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world. Its price dropped 2.6% to settle at $2,292.19. The digital token XRP ranks third in global market size. It took a harder hit, falling exactly 2.8% to trade at $1.3861. Smaller projects also lost money. Solana shed 1.5% of its value, while Cardano dropped 2.3%. Even internet joke coins took a hit. Dogecoin slipped 4.4% for the day, and the $TRUMP token moved marginally lower.
