Bitcoin rockets to $70,000 as Trump announces shock pause on Iran strikes

Bitcoin climbed back above $70,000 after President Donald Trump said the United States had held “productive conversations” with Iran and would postpone planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days.

In a March 23 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote in capital letters:

Trump said the delay would depend on the outcome of talks that are set to continue through the week.

This eased some of the risk aversion that had spread across global markets earlier in the session.

Data from CryptoSlate showed that the move pushed Bitcoin up about 3.6% on the day to $70,968, after it traded as low as $67,436 intraday.

Other digital assets, including Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and the top 10 crypto assets by market capitalization, all registered gains of more than 4% as traders moved back into risk assets following the White House signal.

Following the uptick, short sellers who were betting against upward market momentum lost $271 million in the past hour, bringing their total losses to $364 million over the last 24 hours.

Trump's shifting position on Iran war

This marketwide rebound came after a volatile weekend in which Trump issued a series of shifting statements on the conflict.

Trump had previously threatened to destroy Iranian power infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened, while Iran warned it would retaliate against infrastructure linked to US interests and regional allies.

Those exchanges pushed markets toward a classic risk-off posture earlier on Monday, with oil surging, equities sliding, and investors reassessing the outlook for inflation and interest rates.

Once Trump announced the pause, the reaction spread quickly across asset classes. Oil prices fell sharply as traders reduced some of the geopolitical premium tied to fears of disruption in the Gulf.

Data from Oilprices show that West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 13% to $85.45 a barrel and Brent fell 12% to $98.66 after Trump’s post signaled a temporary opening for diplomacy.

At the same time, US stock futures rebounded more than 2%, reflecting a partial unwind of the defensive positioning that had dominated earlier in the day.

While, Europe’s STOXX 600 reversed losses of more than 2.2% to trade higher, and the dollar gave back earlier gains as investors responded to the prospect of a temporary de-escalation.

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