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Bitcoin jumps to 3-week high on Iran ceasefire announcement

Whether the rally is sustainable remains to be seen, but at the $71,000 level, bitcoin is back at the critical resistance level it’s been attempting to break for the past few months.

Bitcoin finally got the break it’s been yearning for, jumping up 5% to a three-week high following the ceasefire announced Tuesday evening. The asset crossed $72,000 Wednesday morning before dropping back to the $71,000 as US markets opened.

Bitcoin moving back toward 71K, in our view, isn’t the move — it’s the signal. It’s the early stages of the market beginning to price in what could be the next major liquidity cycle flowing into digital assets,” said Connor McLaughlin, head of enterprise at Digital Ascension Group.  

However, whether this rally is sustainable remains to be seen, and overall sentiment is optimistic yet cautious.

Pratik Kala, portfolio manager and head of research at Apollo Crypto, said the words like “workable” and “close to resolution” that Trump used in his Truth Social post, referring to the 10-point proposal from Iran, “are very bullish.”

“Markets look forward, bitcoin was coiled, and I think we can continue a multi-week rally. 72K first target, then 78K by the end of the month possible,” Kala said.

Yet others are pointing to the fragile nature of the truce, which hinges in part on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and could still add volatility to bitcoin.

Nic Puckrin, cofounder of Coin Bureau, told Sherwood News that at $71,000, bitcoin is back at the critical resistance level it’s been attempting to meaningfully break for the past few months.

“If it closes the week above this level, institutional positioning could turn this resistance level into support,” he said, adding that it could set the stage for further upward movement, potentially pushing bitcoin toward $90,000 over the coming months.

“However, it’s important to note that the ceasefire doesn’t fix the damage in markets overnight, and it’s only one of the many factors driving sentiment and price for bitcoin,” Puckrin said. “For now, the recovery is fragile.”

Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs reverted to outflows Tuesday, with a $159 million exodus, according to SoSoValue. But so far in April, bitcoin ETFs remain in the green.

Justin D’Anethan, head of research at Arctic Capital, told Sherwood that continuing ETF inflows give him hope, “but it is kept in check by a broader risk-off sentiment.”

“I suspect many will look back at this level not necessarily as the cycle’s bottom, but as a place that long-term investors were happy to average in. For now, all eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz and any catalysts one way or the other,” D’Anethan said.

Rajiv Sawhney, head of international portfolio management at Wave Digital Asset, also noted that while there is “decent buying from institutions on the ETF side,” from iShares Bitcoin Trust and others, there hasn’t been a material recovery in offshore exchange spot volumes and funding/basis in the market, which “would indicate that investors are willing to take on material risk for a higher recovery.”

In addition, Sawhney said that in the options space, there is a massive positive gamma wall from current levels up to $85,000 to $100,000. 

“This will continue to keep bitcoin locked within the range for the foreseeable future, as dealers will sell into strength to remain delta-neutral, limiting bitcoin’s ability to sustain higher momentum,” Sawhney said.

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Crypto exchange Blockchain.com confidentially files for IPO

Blockchain.com, one of the oldest crypto firms, announced it confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a step toward conducting an initial public offering.

The number of offered shares and price range has yet to be determined, according to a Thursday press release. If the company completes its IPO, Blockchain.com would join Circle and Bullish as crypto companies that have gone public in the year.

Simultaneously, a number of other companies, namely ethereum development firm Consensys, security hardware firm Ledger, and rival crypto exchange Kraken, have paused their plans to IPO due to rough market conditions.

The exchange started in 2011 as a bitcoin search engine before expanding to providing wallets and powering bitcoin transactions. The company raised funds through a series of funding rounds, with a Series D funding round in 2022 giving the firm a $14 billion valuation at the time.

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Hyperliquid ETFs top inflows as HYPE soars

While investors are opting out of ETFs focused on the two largest cryptocurrencies, some are adding ETFs of alternative coins, chief among them being hype, the native token for Hyperliquid. 

Digital asset managers 21shares and Bitwise rolled out hype ETFs last week and have yet to notch any outflows. Tuesday saw the highest level of inflows so far at over $11 million, outpacing XRP and solana ETFs’ combined inflow of nearly $5.3 million. Meanwhile, bitcoin and ethereum saw $393 million exit their funds yesterday, according to SoSoValue.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted the 21shares Hyperliquid ETF “is growing volume each day since launch in the tens of millions now, 8x over day one, which is [a] really good sign of organic interest.”

The ETF flows coincide with the token’s outperformance, jumping 5.7% in the last 24 hours, 29.5% in the past seven days, and more than 100% year to date, data from CoinMarketCap shows. Bitcoin, ethereum, solana, and XRP are all down double digits in 2026.

Hype began trading a week after former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announced ending his tenure, and has an all-time high price of $59.30, set in September 2025.

Hyperliquid, the perpetual futures exchange built on its own blockchain, gained traction among users who wanted to trade assets such as commodities, cryptocurrencies, and equities with leverage in hours when traditional venues are closed. 

Treasury firm Hyperliquid Strategies has also rallied on news the SEC will soon greenlight trading tokenized versions of stocks.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan thinks investors are underestimating Hyperliquid’s impact and value. “The market is valuing Hyperliquid as a perpetual crypto futures exchange that happens to be growing quickly. But it should be valued as a global super-app covering all assets,” Hougan said in a Tuesday memo.

“Its addressable universe is not the $3 trillion crypto market, but the $600 trillion market for global assets. Those are two completely different businesses,” Hougan continued. “Today’s prices suggest you’re being offered the second at the cost of the first.”

Last week, Coinbase and Circle announced a new agreement with Hyperliquid. Coinbase became Hyperliquid’s official treasury deployer of Circle’s USDC on Hyperliquid, a move that translates to sharing around 90% of stablecoin reserve yield with the protocol.

99% of fees generated on Hyperliquid are dedicated to token buybacks, which, annualized, comes to $618 million, data from DefiLlama shows. The market capitalization of hype stands at $12.3 billion. 

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Ethereum exits: Investors depart its ETFs and the Ethereum Foundation shrinks (again)

On Monday, two researchers announced they were leaving the nonprofit organization tasked with supporting the second-largest blockchain network, adding to a growing exodus from the Ethereum Foundation.

Carl Beek, who helped architect the early design of ethereum’s beacon chain, will end his seven-year tenure with the foundation at the end of the month, while research scientist Julian Ma, who focused on product and growth work, has also decided to leave after four years.

Beek and Ma deepen a recent bout of turnover. Last week, the foundation said in a blog post that lead developers Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko are moving on from the organization. In April, Josh Stark, who was on the Ethereum Foundation leadership team for five years, left, as did Trent Van Epps, who organized Protocol Guild, which provides funding to core developers. The string of departures has raised concerns among those in the ecosystem.

“There have been a lot of disagreements about where ETH should move, whether from an issuance or architectural standpoint,” Laurens Fraussen, a research analyst at data provider Kaiko, told Sherwood News. “I’d assume the people leaving are either looking for greener pastures or don’t agree with the way the EF is being run.”

The foundation exodus comes as investors exit from ethereum ETFs. The investment vehicles saw more than $86 million in outflows on Monday, making six straight days of outflows, the longest streak since March, according to SoSoValue.

Meanwhile, an address identified as Galaxy Digital has a $2.3 million short position on ethereum using 20x leverage on Hyperliquid, data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen shows. The price of ethereum stands just under $2,110 as of 12:10 p.m. ET. With an entry point of $2,203, the firm has an unrealized gain of $102,000.

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