The United States is rapidly pulling personnel out of military installations and embassies all over the Middle East due to fears of imminent Iranian strikes, the WSJ reported on Saturday morning.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton stated in a Friday memo addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Tehran has dramatically stepped up its attempts to strike American staff. Clayton noted that deadly conspiracy efforts directed by Iran against United States citizens have advanced significantly within the Middle East as well as in other nations.
These withdrawals seem to extend far past earlier announcements this week stating that Washington was directing certain diplomatic workers in Saudi Arabia to depart.
In the meantime, President Trump warned of a renewed escalation in the conflict involving Iran following the early November midterms. During a Friday campaign event in Florida, Trump remarked that they might execute another brief operation similar to Epic Fury.
Digital asset values are dropping to multi-week bottoms, with bitcoin declining 2.2% across the prior day to trade at $79,700. Other major tokens including ether, XRP, and solana registered losses between 3% and 4%.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/24/crypto-under-weekend-pressure-bitcoin-slides-below-usd80-000-on-u-s-middle-east-evacuations.
