Bitcoin fell to $76,000 on May 18, unwinding a short-lived rebound and pushing its market capitalization down to $1.53 trillion. The roughly 2% drop was accompanied by $722 million in long liquidations across the crypto market, compared with nearly $94 million in shorts.

Bitcoin slid Sunday night after US President Donald Trump posted a warning to Iran on Truth Social, and by early Monday it was trading around $76,780, down about 1.55% over 24 hours. The move pushed BTC below key hourly EMAs (20-hour $77,580; 50-hour $78,120; 100-hour $78,767; 200-hour $79,350) while MACD readings stayed negative (line -359; signal -243; histogram -116).

Bitcoin started the third week of May near $76.8k after giving back the prior week's $80k breakout and breaking a short-term rising trendline. The pullback has brought price back into the middle of a larger daily ascending channel, with $75k flagged as the key support area. Analysts outline $80k as the level to reclaim on a bounce, while a breakdown below $75k could shift focus toward $72k and the 100-day moving average.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed HF 3709 into law, allowing state-chartered banks and credit unions to provide custody for bitcoin and other virtual currencies starting Aug. 1, 2026. Institutions must give the Minnesota Department of Commerce 60 days' written notice before launching and keep customer assets segregated, while the law bars banks from trading, investing, or lending the crypto they hold.

On May 18, 2026 at 19:21, Patrick Witt said a White House announcement on a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve is imminent after months of quiet interagency work. He said the effort focused on confirming executive authorities and building a custody-and-safeguarding framework, led by deputy Harry Jong with involvement from Stephen Miller's team and DECOSP.

Bitcoin has pulled back toward $76,275, but its weekly setup still keeps a move toward $91,091 technically possible if support holds. The chart remains above the Bollinger Bands middle line (20 SMA) at $74,986, while on-chain data highlights 7.8 million BTC sitting at a loss near $76.7K as a potential resistance zone.

Strategy Inc. said it bought 24,869 Bitcoin worth about $2.01 billion between 11 May and 17 May, according to a Form 8-K released on 18 May. The company reported total holdings of 843,738 BTC acquired for approximately $63.87 billion at an average cost of roughly $75,700 per BTC. It said the purchases were financed primarily through ATM sales of STRC preferred shares, alongside a smaller amount raised from MSTR common stock.

On May 18, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) stepped up Bitcoin selling after its six-week streak of cash inflows ended. The fund moved 2,221 BTC to Coinbase Prime, worth about $170.59 million at press time, while BTC was down 4.61% over seven days to around $77,410 and its market cap fell by $22.3 billion over 24 hours to about $1.5 trillion.