US President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce that the Strait of Hormuz is now fully open for passage — a declaration that came hours after Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed the waterway would be unblocked for all commercial vessels during the remaining period of the US-Iran ceasefire. Related Reading: Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading Expands As Charles Schwab Enters Crypto Market Trump Weighs In As Bitcoin Climbs Bitcoin reacted fast. The leading cryptocurrency jumped sharply after Araghchi’s announcement and rose above $77,000 — its highest mark since February. At the time of reporting, it was trading around $77,300, up more than 1.8% on the day, according to CoinMarketCap data. Trump had expressed optimism the previous day that the war with Iran would soon end. His Truth Social post citing Iran’s announcement added weight to what was already a significant shift in the region’s security posture. “The Strait will be open for the period of the remaining US-Iran ceasefire, which expires on April 22,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said. The ceasefire between the US and Iran has a hard deadline — April 22. The Strait reopening is tied to that window, and Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization has already announced a coordinated route that vessels will be required to follow. Lebanon Deal Unlocks The Wider Equation The decision to reopen the Strait did not happen in isolation. Iran had long maintained that Lebanon was part of the conditions it agreed to in its ceasefire with the US. When Israel and Lebanon struck a 10-day ceasefire deal, it cleared a key condition for Iran to act. The Lebanon agreement, in effect, opened the door for the Hormuz announcement. That chain of events — Lebanon deal, then Hormuz reopening, then Bitcoin rally — unfolded within a compressed period, catching markets mid-session. The crypto market responded across the board, with broader sentiment lifted by reduced tensions in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. A significant share of global oil exports passes through it. Any closure or threat of closure tends to rattle energy markets and risk assets alike. Its reopening, even on a temporary basis, removes one source of uncertainty for traders. Related Reading: Bitcoin Pressure Builds As Miners Dump 32K BTC In Just 3 Months What Happens After April 22? The current arrangement has a short shelf life. The ceasefire between the US and Iran expires in five days. Whether it gets extended — and whether the Strait remains open past that point — depends on negotiations that are still ongoing. Reports indicate that Iran views the Lebanon ceasefire as validation of its broader position in the talks. A resolution to the wider conflict, if reached, would likely be seen as a positive signal for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market. For now, the price reaction suggests traders are pricing in a degree of cautious optimism. No formal extension to the US-Iran ceasefire has been announced. Featured image from SeaTradeMaritimeNews, chart from TradingView
Bitcoin traders are already betting the wider US-Iran ceasefire will hold. Data from prediction market Polymarket puts the odds of a permanent peace deal by April 22 at 23%. Related Reading: Bitcoin Rally Faces First Test At $76K As Sellers Step In: Analysts Markets React To Diplomatic Breakthrough That confidence is showing up in Bitcoin’s price. The world’s largest cryptocurrency climbed to $74,650 on Thursday, bouncing back from an intraday low of around $73,050, according to TradingView data. The move came within hours of US President Donald Trump announcing a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon — a deal that had been quietly taking shape following direct talks between the two countries on US soil the day before. Trump made the announcement on Truth Social, saying both sides had agreed to begin the truce immediately as part of broader efforts toward lasting peace. Short. Direct. And enough to move markets. Nuclear Talks Add To Optimism The Israel-Lebanon deal matters beyond its own terms. Iran had made clear it would walk away from its own ceasefire agreement with the US if Israeli strikes on Lebanon did not stop. With that condition now met, the path to a second round of US-Iran peace talks looks more open. Reports from Pakistani mediators indicate a major step forward on Iran’s nuclear program, which was the main sticking point when the two sides failed to reach a deal in the first round of negotiations last weekend. Bitcoin had already touched a multi-month peak of $76,000 earlier this week, driven by growing optimism that the US-Iran conflict could wind down. The war had weighed heavily on risk assets from its early days, with rising oil prices stoking inflation fears that kept investors cautious. As those concerns ease, money has started moving back into crypto. Ceasefire Extension In Focus Tensions remain, even if they have softened. Trump’s decision to blockade the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week rattled nerves, though markets have since stabilized. The window for a resolution is narrow. Both the US-Iran truce and the newly announced Israel-Lebanon ceasefire are short-term arrangements, not permanent agreements. Related Reading: ‘Extremely Good News’ – XRP DeFi Momentum Builds As SEC Softens Position On Interfaces Still, the mood among traders has shifted. Pakistani officials are said to be shuttling communications between Washington and Tehran ahead of a potential second round of talks. Based on reports, both governments continue to engage through back channels even as formal negotiations pause. Whether the ceasefires hold — and whether they grow into something more durable — will likely determine where Bitcoin heads next. Featured image from ddnews.gov.in, chart from TradingView
More than 87% of Argentinians surveyed in a January Coinbase poll said they view crypto and blockchain technology as a way to strengthen their financial independence — a sign that the role of Bitcoin in the global economy may already be shifting well beyond what markets have priced in. Related Reading: ‘Extremely Good News’ – XRP DeFi Momentum Builds As SEC Softens Position On Interfaces Bitcoin’s Dual Role Draws New Attention Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, made that case publicly this week. He said Bitcoin could one day command a total addressable market larger than gold’s $34 trillion valuation — but only if it manages to function both as a store of value and as an actual working currency. That’s a bigger claim than what Bitcoin bulls have traditionally made. For years, the comparison to gold was the headline argument. Now, a war is adding a new layer to that conversation. https://t.co/jxIcOn1e23 — Matt Hougan (@Matt_Hougan) April 14, 2026 Iran has proposed allowing ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay a toll in crypto. The plan, reported in recent days amid escalating conflict with the United States, is being watched closely by Bitcoin investors. To Hougan, it points to something larger. In a world where countries have turned financial systems into weapons, he wrote on social media, Bitcoin is emerging as an option that no single government controls. A $1 Million Price Target — And Possibly Higher Hougan previously put a number on his store-of-value thesis: if Bitcoin captures 17% of that market over the next decade, each coin could be worth $1 million. Based on his latest comments, that figure may need to be revised upward if Bitcoin begins functioning like a currency alongside its role as a savings vehicle. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades around $74,150, with a total market cap of roughly $1.4 trillion. Gold, by comparison, sits at $4,854 per ounce, with an estimated market cap exceeding $33 trillion. Corporate treasuries have also been buying in. Data shows private and public companies collectively hold more than 1.5 million Bitcoin, valued at over $116 billion. Merchant Adoption Remains A Work In Progress Still, the currency side of the equation has ground to cover. A study by academic publisher Springer Nature found roughly 11,000 merchants worldwide currently accept Bitcoin as payment — a relatively modest number for an asset of its size. Related Reading: Dollar’s Shrinking Value Adds Fuel To XRP Bull Case: Finance Expert Adoption has been strongest in countries where local currencies have collapsed. Citizens in Turkey and Venezuela, like those in Argentina, have turned to Bitcoin to protect savings against persistent inflation. Whether Iran’s crypto toll proposal signals a turning point for Bitcoin as an international currency — or simply reflects one sanctioned nation finding a workaround — remains to be seen. What’s clear is that Bitwise believes the story is bigger than gold alone. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
Previous bear markets left scars that are hard to ignore. The 2017 crash wiped out more than 80% of Bitcoin’s value. The 2021 collapse took nearly 77%. So when a fresh wave of analysts began calling for a drop to $50,000, the warnings carried weight — at least on paper. Related Reading: TRUMP Buying Frenzy Builds Ahead Of Mar-A-Lago Power Event A Different Kind Of Cycle Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, said the $50,000 level was being eyed as the last major buying opportunity before any real recovery could take hold. A drop to that price, he said, would represent a “healthy cycle reset” given the pressure from broader economic forces and weak movement of capital into crypto. But Ruck also raised a point that separates this downturn from past ones: Bitcoin is already down roughly 40% from its record high, and this time around, large institutions are involved in ways they simply weren’t before. That changes the math. Prior crashes were driven mostly by retail traders — ordinary people buying and panic-selling. Institutional money behaves differently, and consistent buying pressure from that side of the market may be putting a floor under prices that didn’t exist in earlier cycles. “There is a chance this cycle might not reach an idealized 60% drawdown,” Ruck said, pointing to what he called a distinctively macro-structured market environment. Bitcoin: the big flush… I don’t think we’ve had it yet I don’t think $60,000 was the bottom You can pray for it of course ???? but it won’t help Trend is still down The few % bounces are tiny if you zoom out I will reconsider this stance in case bull strength returns It’s just… — Ivan on Tech ???????????? Head Trader @ Bullmania (@IvanOnTech) April 13, 2026 Trader and author Ivan Liljeqvist posted to X that Bitcoin had yet to experience what he called “the big flush.” He said he didn’t believe $60,000 marked the bottom, and that the overall trend remained pointed downward. The small bounces seen along the way, he argued, looked minor against the bigger price picture. Analyst Merlijn Enkelaar echoed that view, suggesting Bitcoin was entering a second bear phase that could push prices to $50,000 before any wider distribution of gains takes place. THREE PHASES. BITCOIN ABOUT TO ENTERTHE SECOND. Accumulation: done. Manipulation: loading. Distribution: $150K. Pending. $70K is the decision. Hold it: manipulation is short. Lose it: $50K first. They ran this playbook once already. You watched it happen. pic.twitter.com/yJMAeA6Tfh — Merlijn The Trader (@MerlijnTrader) April 13, 2026 Geopolitical Tensions Drive Swings Crypto prices don’t move in a vacuum. A temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran sent Bitcoin briefly above $75,000 — the kind of jump that happens when fear lifts, even for a moment. US President Donald Trump announced the two-week pause in hostilities, and markets responded quickly. But the relief didn’t last. Peace talks broke down over the weekend, and by Monday Bitcoin had slipped back below $71,000 after Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Rising consumer prices, reported in Friday’s CPI data, added further weight. Bitcoin’s all-time high stands at $126,198, set in October 2025. At current prices around $72,500 to $74,600, that puts the drawdown at roughly 40% to 44% — deep, but still well short of the 60% collapse that some models suggest a full bear market requires. BTC STILL LOOKS SUPER BEARISH HTF Weekly short imbalances were filled and rn we can only go to 1M imbalance, which is ~$80K Right after it, I am waiting for a final huge dump to one of my targets: $59K or $50K Either way last dump is coming Notifs on, I’ll call exact bottom pic.twitter.com/twHr5VhxRr — symbiote (@cryptosymbiiote) April 13, 2026 Analysts Split On What Comes Next One analyst posting under the name “symbiote” called the chart “super bearish” on longer time frames, saying a final large drop to either $59,000 or $50,000 was still coming. Others are less certain the floor hasn’t already been set. Related Reading: Dollar’s Shrinking Value Adds Fuel To XRP Bull Case: Finance Expert What makes this cycle harder to read is the mix of forces pulling in both directions. Institutional investment and ETF inflows provide steady demand. Global conflict, inflation data, and uncertain monetary policy cut against that. Neither side has clearly hit the proverbial bullseye. Bitcoin touched a low of around $66,000 in early April before recovering. Whether that low holds — or whether the market has another leg down before it finds real footing — remains an open question that even the most watched voices in crypto can’t agree on. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Binance is offering temporary relocation to employees based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the Iran conflict rattles the wider Middle East. Iran Tensions Spill Over To CEXs Bloomberg reported today that the largest crypto centralized exchange (CEX) said many staff members have opted to stay in the UAE, though it did not disclose an exact number. Related Reading: Is XRP Safer Than Bitcoin? This Analyst Explains The Real Quantum Risk For Holders In an e-mail statement sent to Bloomberg this Friday, the CEX explains it gave its UAE employees the relocation option as a precaution measure. Binance assures the company is more than capable to support this type of scenarios without it interfering with the business. Given the recent regional tensions, we offered employees the option to temporarily relocate as a precautionary, employee-first measure to provide flexibility and support during a period of uncertainty. As a remote-first organisation, we are well set up to support this kind of flexibility without disruption to our operations. This measure follows last month’s recommendation from Binance to its UAE staff to limit outdoor activity and prioritize remote work as tensions rose. Binance And The UAE: A Recap On March 2025, Binance reported it had roughly 1,000 employees in the country, accounting for about 20% of its global headcount, Bloomberg claims. At the ending of last year, Binance repositioned itself under Abu Dhabi Global Market oversight and moved its global platform under ADGM supervision, making the UAE its regulatory and operational anchor. The CEX giant is under an ongoing compliance upheaval and Iran‑linked scrutiny since February this year. Binance fired five investigators after an internal probe into roughly $1 billion worth of USDT transactions tied to Iran. According to The New York Times, users in Iran accessed more than 1,500 Binance accounts. In that period, around $1.7 billion moved from two Binance accounts to Iranian entities with alleged ties to terrorist organizations. This potentially breached international sanctions. A Binance contractor opereated one of those accounts. The cuts were focused on investigators and compliance personnel who were reportedly responsible for missing red flags tied to these potential violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Such move marked a major internal compliance crackdown and a strong signal of enforcement within the company’s regulatory structure. Related Reading: Bitcoin Stress Cycle Is Ending — But Traders May Hate What Comes Nex For global exchanges, jurisdictional arbitrage now includes war risk and sanctions optics. No direct impact on trading has been reported yet. Operational disruptions or a drawn‑out conflict could dent sentiment around BNB and Gulf‑centric liquidity. At the moment of writing, BTC trades for around $72k on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview. Cover image from Perplexity. BTCUSD chart from Tradingview.
More than 8 million wallets now hold XRP — a milestone that comes even as the token’s price sits well below where it stood less than a year ago. Related Reading: XRP Headed For A Price Shock, Japan’s Financial Heavyweight Says A Market Still Chasing Its Peak XRP traded at $1.35 on Monday, up roughly 4% on the day, but still more than 60% below the $3.65 high it hit in July 2025. Despite that gap, activity on the XRP Ledger has kept climbing. Wallet counts crossed 8 million, according to on-chain data, a figure that continues rising regardless of where the price stands. Most of those wallets belong to retail holders with relatively small balances. A much smaller group controls the bulk of the supply. Trading volume told a different story entirely. Data from CoinGlass put XRP’s combined spot and futures activity at $3.86 billion in a single 24-hour window — $3.25 billion of that coming through futures markets and $605 million through spot trading. Open interest stood at $2.50 billion, a sign that traders are not just moving in and out quickly but holding positions. Binance led all exchanges in futures open interest, posting $140 million. Upbit followed at $111 million, with Coinbase close behind at $85 million. That spread across both global and US-based platforms points to broad participation rather than activity concentrated in one region. Despite a softening of the $XRP price that began in July 2025 (shown in black), wallets continue to climb (shown in blue). ????8.1M #XRP Ledger wallets as of April 4, 2026 Source: CryptoQuant pic.twitter.com/vSpOd94jg7 — ????Eri ~ Carpe Diem (@sentosumosaba) April 5, 2026 Volume Climbs Across Borders XRP’s market cap sat at $82 billion during the same period. The numbers came on a day when broader crypto markets were also moving. Bitcoin briefly pushed back above $69,000, gaining 4% after reports emerged of a possible easing in Middle East tensions. Whether that momentum would carry over to major altcoins like XRP remains unclear. Some believe that the high trading volume was an indication of a possible buy pressure before a bigger move. Others attributed the high volume of futures to the large weight of the derivative instrument as compared to spot trading. This means that the high trading volume of futures might not have represented the same conviction as spot trading. Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Gaining Ground, Could Soon Surpass Gold—Analyst Retailers Lead, Institutions Monitor The wallet analysis of XRP indicates that the cryptocurrency network is still dominated by ordinary people instead of big organizations. Millions of wallets have little XRP holdings while the few wallets dominate the majority of XRP supply. The data indicates that such a distribution model has remained the same despite the fall in price since its all-time high last year. With the high volume of trading, increasing wallets, and stagnant prices, analysts are wondering how XRP will proceed in the future. Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
Over $44 million in short positions were wiped out on Binance in a single hour Monday — the largest one-hour short liquidation since February 6 — yet the price surge it helped trigger drew little enthusiasm from actual buyers. Related Reading: Shiba Inu Flirts With $0.0000052 Support As Exchange Supply Swells Futures Chaos, Not Fresh Money, Lifted BTC Bitcoin climbed to a weekly high of $71,801 on Binance during the US market session, pushed higher largely by forced closures of short positions rather than new capital entering the market. Aggregated open interest across Bitcoin futures fell by roughly 9,700 BTC — a 3.5% drop — over 13 hours while prices rose. When open interest falls during a rally, it typically means traders are exiting positions, not adding them. That’s not the signature of a confident bull run. The Coinbase premium, which tracks whether US buyers are paying above or below the global average price, stayed negative throughout the move. Reports indicate limited spot demand from US participants during the entire rally window. Binance Volumes Sink To Bear Market Levels The broader picture looks just as thin. According to crypto analyst Darkfost, March is on pace to record the lowest Binance spot volume since the third quarter of 2023 — around $52 billion, compared to $88 billion that September. That September figure itself came during a period widely characterized as a bear market. Exchange flow data tells a similar story: seven-day cumulative flows on Binance hit their lowest point since 2024, based on data reported by analyst Arab Chain. Coinbase flows held relatively steady by comparison, suggesting longer-term holders are maintaining activity while shorter-term traders pull back. The trigger for Monday’s price action was a news report that US President Donald Trump had paused plans for military strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure, citing diplomatic progress. Iran’s foreign ministry quickly denied that any such talks had taken place. BTC still rallied on the headline. Whale Activity Flashes An Unusual Signal One data point stands apart from the rest. A market analyst identified a record spike in what’s called whale inflow momentum — a measure of how fast large amounts of Bitcoin are being moved onto exchanges. The current reading of 74 is higher than any point in the past 11 years. The last time it exceeded this level was in 2015, when it hit 124. Related Reading: Bitcoin Holds As Gold Posts Worst Week Since 1983 Amid Iran War High whale inflows don’t automatically signal selling. But reports note the elevated pace points to aggressive capital rotation and hedging among large holders, which could make Bitcoin’s price more sensitive to short-term swings in the weeks ahead. For now, the rally stalled around the $71,000 to $72,000 range, with no clear indication that the demand needed to push meaningfully beyond it has arrived. Featured image from zoranm/Men’s Health, chart from TradingView