Trump hits pause on iran strikes and crypto rockets 5% in 20 minutes
Bitcoin lurched from a two-week low to a 4.8% sprint in the time it takes to order coffee after Donald Trump announced he would delay strikes on Iranian power plants by five days. The largest digital coin shot from $67,371 to $70,800 in New York trading, dragging Ether and Solana up with it while Treasury futures and equity indexes flashed green across the board.
The tweet that moved $100 billion
At 09:13 EST the president posted on his own social network that the Pentagon would hold off bombing Iran’s energy grid, giving diplomats a “short window” to negotiate. Within minutes algorithmic desks unwound short bets and retail apps lit up with buy alerts. The crypto market added roughly $100 billion in market cap before the opening bell finished ringing.
Traders had spent the morning pricing in escalation. Bitcoin touched its lowest level since 9 March, oil futures were up 2%, and VIX contracts spiked. Then the script flipped. “Risk-off became risk-on in a heartbeat,” said Katie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies. “Momentum bots simply chased the headline.”
Volatility is now the base case
Since late-February, when Israeli and Iranian proxies started exchanging fire, Bitcoin has traced a jagged band between $67,000 and $76,000. Each rumour of air strikes or drone swarms sends the tape gyrating; each hint of détente snaps it back. The net result: a 12% range with no clear direction except speed.
Traditional safe havens are not behaving. Gold is flat, the dollar index is down 1% this week, and ten-year yields dropped eight basis points after Trump’s post. Crypto, once sold as an uncorrelated asset, now trades like a geared Nasdaq ETF with geopolitical headlines as the catalyst.
Lo que nadie cuenta es que volumes on offshore exchanges tripled during the spike, indicating heavy leveraged longs are already reloading. If diplomacy falters before the five-day countdown ends, the same algos will slam the exit door. The next tweet could just as easily erase today’s gains.