Crypto Pulls Back on April 28 as Iran Talks Stall and Oil Climbs Again

The total market cap slipped 1.3% to $2.64 trillion, and the selling was fairly broad. Bitcoin fell from a Monday high of $78,225 down to...

Written by: Sophia Cruz • Tuesday, April 28, 2026 • 2 min read

• Last updated: Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Tuesday was a rough day for anyone holding crypto. The total market cap slipped 1.3% to $2.64 trillion, and the selling was fairly broad. Bitcoin fell from a Monday high of $78,225 down to around $76,480 before finding some footing near $76,900. Ethereum was off about 1% near $2,300. XRP, BNB, Solana, and Tron were each down between 1% and 2%. Some of last week’s standout gainers, including Hyperliquid, MemeCore, and Zcash, gave back the most ground.

The leverage market took a beating alongside spot. Over $266 million was wiped out in liquidations across the total market, with $210 million of that coming from long positions. When prices drop fast enough to force those closures, the selling tends to compound itself, which is part of why moves like Tuesday’s feel sharper than the percentage decline alone suggests.

The Iran situation is what drove the mood. Tehran put forward a proposal earlier this week offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if the US lifted its naval blockade, with nuclear talks to follow at a later stage. Trump’s team has been reviewing the offer, but there has been no movement, and reports suggested Trump recently canceled plans to send envoys to Pakistan for talks with the Iranian side. That cancellation landed badly. Oil responded immediately, with WTI pushing back toward $99 a barrel and Brent clearing $110.

Rising energy costs tend to feed inflation expectations, which tend to feed rate concerns, which tend to pull money out of risk assets. Crypto sits at the speculative end of that chain, so it tends to feel those shifts quickly. Even gold was not spared on Tuesday, falling over 1%, and silver dropped around 2%.

On the equities side, crypto-related names took notable hits. Coinbase fell 1.5%, Circle dropped 3.5%, and Galaxy Digital was down close to 6%. The Nasdaq slipped 0.3% in early trading while the S&P 500 held roughly flat ahead of a heavy earnings week featuring Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.