Bitcoin has clawed back losses to trade near $74,000 after President Donald Trump abruptly announced an end to the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, easing weeks of geopolitical pressure on crypto and oil markets.
Summary
- Bitcoin rebounds to roughly $74,000 after Trump ends Hormuz blockade
- Traders unwind “war premium” as focus shifts back to macro and ETF flows
- BTC volatility stays elevated after weeks of headline driven price swings
In a Truth Social post, US President announced the end of the Hormuz naval blockade, spurring a reaction from crypto and stock markets around the world.
Bitcoin (BTC) erased a multi day slide and reclaimed roughly $74,000 on Friday after Trump declared that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “has ended,” drawing a line under a standoff that had repeatedly whipsawed the world’s largest cryptocurrency since early April.
The move marks a sharp reversal from mid April, when Bitcoin briefly plunged toward $71,000 after Trump first ordered the naval blockade and oil prices spiked on fears that a fifth of global seaborne crude could be choked off.
On Friday, traders treated the end of the blockade as an all clear signal to rotate back into risk, unwinding some of the “war premium” that had built up in both crude and crypto options markets, with Bitcoin spot leading the bounce.
Trump blinks on Hormuz
Trump’s announcement caps weeks of brinkmanship that began when he ordered U.S. forces to “blockade the Strait of Hormuz” after peace talks with Iran collapsed in early April, a decision that immediately knocked Bitcoin from the mid $73,000s toward $71,000 and sent oil above $100 per barrel.
As the standoff dragged on, Washington insisted that “freedom of navigation” for non Iranian vessels would be preserved even as Iranian ships and ports remained under pressure, a nuance that helped Bitcoin bounce back above $72,000 once traders realized the blockade would be partial rather than absolute.
According to one U.S. briefing cited by market commentary, the administration calculated that closing the waterway entirely could cost Iran “about $500 million a day in revenue,” underscoring how much economic leverage was at stake as both sides postured over the channel.
Bitcoin’s geopolitical stress test
The end of the blockade comes after a month in which Bitcoin repeatedly proved resilient to Middle East headlines, refusing to sustain breaks below $70,000 even as Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iranian power plants if Hormuz was not reopened within 48 hours and later rejected Tehran’s “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” counterproposal on a broader peace plan.
In mid April, BTC briefly traded above $74,000 as Iran signaled it would keep the strait open and a tentative ceasefire took hold, with one market note flagging spot led buying and a realized price near $74,000 as evidence that structural demand remained intact despite war risk.
Earlier this month, Bitcoin even whipsawed around $82,000 after Trump rebuffed a new Iranian offer and vowed the blockade would continue “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” a post that triggered roughly $410 million in short liquidations in 24 hours as BTC first slid, then snapped higher.
Crypto’s latest relief rally now shifts attention back to macro and structural drivers that had been overshadowed by Hormuz: exchange traded fund flows, halvingside supply dynamics and the broader debate over whether Bitcoin is behaving more like digital gold or a high beta proxy on risk assets as it chops between the high $60,000s and mid $80,000s.
In recent weeks, crypto.news has tracked how Bitcoin held near $80,000 after Trump rejected an earlier Iran proposal, as well as how BTC steadied when Iran moved to “fully reopen” Hormuz even while the U.S. blockade on Iranian ships remained in force, and how the token continues to trade each ceasefire headline “by headline.”
With the naval blockade now formally lifted and BTC back around $74,000, the next test for bulls is whether the market can finally escape its war zone range and re focus on domestic U.S. policy battles over initiatives like Trump’s Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the longer term institutional bid underneath the price.
