HYPE Briefly Tops Dogecoin as Iran Tensions Trigger Crypto Selloff
The crypto market woke up to a jolt on Tuesday as US strikes on Iran rattled crypto markets across the board, triggering a broad pullback that had been building after weeks of steady gains. The geopolitical shock, confirmed by US Central Command, which cited defensive strikes on missile launch sites and boats attempting to mine the Strait of Hormuz, sent oil prices climbing nearly 2% to $98 a barrel and strengthened the dollar against all G-10 peers, draining risk appetite across digital assets.
Privacy tokens absorbed the sharpest blows. Zcash (ZEC) dropped 5.2% over 24 hours to $619, the steepest decline among the top 20 tokens by market cap, though it remains up 8.2% over the past seven days. Monero (XMR) fell 4% to $378. Both had been on a tear in recent weeks, with ZEC drawing significant institutional attention following Multicoin Capital’s stake disclosure earlier this month and a powerful narrative building around privacy-focused assets. Analysts framed Tuesday’s pullback not as a structural reversal, but as profit-taking, institutional buyers in privacy tokens have been accumulating through the rally, not offloading into it.
Amid all the red, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token made a striking move. HYPE briefly traded above Dogecoin’s market cap during Asian hours before pulling back, with HYPE down 4% to $59 and DOGE off 0.8% to $0.1009. Even with the dip, HYPE is still up 23.6% over the past seven days, buoyed by last week’s launch of a SpaceX pre-IPO perpetual contract on the Hyperliquid platform. The milestone, however brief, signals just how quickly the decentralized exchange has grown into a serious market force. Hyperliquid also made headlines separately for launching offchain event contracts that let traders bet on macro outcomes like inflation and Fed decisions, a direct challenge to prediction market rival Polymarket.
Tron (TRX) was the lone gainer among the top 10, rising 2.6% to $0.3739 and up 4.8% over seven days. Bitcoin held near $76,500, Ether sat at $2,087, and Solana traded at $83.97, all in tight ranges with no decisive move in either direction.
The macro picture remains the story for now. Brent crude’s rebound, a stronger dollar, and renewed Middle East tension all point to a cautious market waiting for clarity. Gold pulled back 0.6% to $4,545, while S&P 500 futures held a modest 0.6% gain following Monday’s US market closure for the holiday. As US strikes on Iran rattle crypto markets, traders are watching whether this is a brief shock or the beginning of a sustained risk-off period.
