Bitcoin Price Resists $76K Dip as Analyst Flags Next Buy Zone at $74K

Key Takeaways

Volatile Recovery Interrupted by Geopolitical Friction

On Sept. 2, bitcoin appeared to recover from a sell-off sparked by renewed U.S. strikes on Iran that upended its recovery and sent it tumbling toward the $76,000 mark. However, the recovery was marked by high volatility, with the price swinging from an intraday high jump of over $78,000 to a daily low of $76,229.

Data showed the price fell sharply just minutes after reclaiming $78,000 when the U.S. military said it had struck positions inside Iran, leading to retaliatory strikes by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The military exchange also sent U.S. stocks plummeting and oil prices soaring, with Brent crude briefly topping $95 per barrel.

Hours after the strikes, bitcoin’s price appeared to recover as it reclaimed $77,000 in support, but it stalled after reaching $77,500 around 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday. Another recovery attempt saw the cryptocurrency again reach $77,500 before selling pressure sent it to its daily low. Bitcoin was hovering above $77,200 after rallying from just under $76,300. This price level left bitcoin with a daily loss of 0.8% and dragged its market cap down to $1.55 trillion.

Despite being a marginal decline, bitcoin’s price action was nonetheless brutal for bullish traders. According to Coinglass data, of the $110 million in leveraged positions wiped out on the cryptocurrency, liquidated long bets accounted for just over 80%, or $91 million. Across the broader cryptocurrency market, liquidated long positions reached $276 million, or approximately 77% of the nearly $356 million in liquidations recorded over 24 hours.

From August Tailwinds to Escalation Risk

Although both Washington and Tehran appear eager to avoid a full-scale escalation, the return to kinetic conflict introduces a geopolitical risk factor that was missing from bitcoin’s August rally. The cryptocurrency’s late-summer momentum was fueled almost exclusively by macroeconomic tailwinds, namely, mounting U.S. national debt and the Treasury’s bond buyback program.

Now, with both the U.S. and Iranian forces seemingly braced for a fresh cycle of reprisal strikes, geopolitical volatility has complicated bitcoin’s bullish thesis, forcing crypto markets to price in a risk profile they largely managed to ignore last month. As a result, some market participants are adjusting their lower bounds accordingly.

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe points out that bitcoin’s failure to break past $77,700 signals that a full market recovery remains premature. Instead, he anticipates liquidity sweeps near $76,400 and a crucial support check at $76,200. If selling pressure breaches those levels, van de Poppe identifies $74,000 as the key structural boundary offering a “tremendous opportunity” for strategic long entries.