Ramazan Eles 
Bitcoin experienced a sharp drop of nearly 5% yesterday evening, raising questions about the reasons behind the pullback.
Bitcoin quickly retreated from $66,700 to the $63,700 range, losing 5% in value. Parallel to this, the entire cryptocurrency market experienced declines, with Ethereum (ETH) losing 6% and Solana (SOL) losing 9.6%.
The decline resulted in the liquidation of nearly $200 million worth of long positions in the cryptocurrency market.
Why Did Bitcoin Drop?
According to a statement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the founders of Samourai Wallet, a crypto mixer service, were arrested. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies continued their decline due to ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the arrest news from the US.
Within an hour of the DOJ’s statement, Bitcoin made a sharp downward move, falling 3.6%.
According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin and altcoins failed to recover quickly from the decline. Bitcoin is currently trading at $64,400 at the time of writing.