Bitcoin Slips Under $80,000 as U.S. Cuts Mideast Embassy Staff

Bitcoin traded near $79,540 at 11:54 a.m. ET Saturday, down 2.4% in 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. That puts it below every daily reading in CoinGecko's data since Sept. 18. Ether fell 4.4% to about $2,298 and Solana lost 4.9% to $99.41.

The selling came as Washington pulled people out of the Middle East. The State Department is reducing staff at its embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan, the Associated Press and NBC News reported. Earlier in the week it ordered nonessential staff out of the embassy in Riyadh and the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran.

The intelligence memo

The moves follow an Oct. 23 memo from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The memo said Iran had "substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel" and that lethal plotting had "reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries," per AP and NBC. The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that U.S. personnel were also being moved out of other outposts in the region.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said on X that the safety of staff and their families remained the department's highest priority. The reports cited here did not include a response from Iran's government.

Flows were already soft

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted net outflows of $137.9 million on Friday, according to Farside Investors. Weekend trading is thinner, so headlines can move prices faster.

Our read: crypto trades all weekend, and on this one it was the only big market open to react.