Key Developments
Crypto prices surged on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said the nation would postpone attacks on Iran’s power plants for five days, easing concerns the conflict would escalate.
However, a conflicting report emerged from Iran’s Fars news agency, which said that the talks cited by the U.S. president hadn’t taken place at all, adding to the confusion in the markets.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that the two countries held “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.”
The five-day hiatus doesn’t end the war, however, as Iran continues to strike targets across the Gulf and Israel would also need to The gains started to reverse later after Fars, citing an unidentified source, denied any talks between the countries, according to Al Jazeera.
Bitcoin BTC$70,800.43, which sank below $68,000 overnight, climbed above $71,000 in early U.S. hours before retreating closer to $70,000 after the Iranian response. Ether (ETH), DOGE$0.09436, solana (SOL and Chainlink LINK$9.2357 all rose as much as 5% over 24 hours before giving back part of the gains.
Market Context
Gold erased almost all its earlier losses, now down just 1% on the day and rebounding to $4,440 per ounce. The U.S. dollar index, DXY, has slipped to 99.3.
Bond yields have declined globally, with the U.S. 10 year yield falling by 100 basis points to 4.3%.
Meanwhile, WTI crude is down 11% on the day, trading below $88 per barrel, while Brent crude has dropped 8% to around $100 per barrel. Tokenized Brent crude futures saw $62.4 million in liquidations on Hyperliquid.
CoinGlass data shows $62.41 million in liquidations on the XYZ:BRENTOIL contract over the past 24 hours, with $61.69 million from longs and just $717,000 from shorts.
Galaxy Digital (GLXY) rose 2% in pre-market trading, while Coinbase (COIN) and IREN (IREN) also added around 2% each. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, gained more than 3%.
What To Watch
Despite the knee-jerk risk-on market reaction and the drop in oil prices, options tied to bitcoin continue to reflect a defensive bias.
As of the time of writing, put options on Deribit continued to trade at an 8–10 volatility point premium to calls through the June-end expiry, largely unchanged from earlier in the day, according to data source Amberdata. The same is true for ether options.
This suggests traders remain cautious, viewing the latest bounce with skepticism and bracing for potential aftershocks from the recent oil spike on broader markets and the global economy.
CORRECT (March 23, 11:30 UTC): Corrects first paragraph to say attacks will be postponed. An earlier version of this story said they would be escalated.
UPDATE (March 23, 11:40 UTC): Adds crude prices, options.
UPDATE (March 23, 12:15 UTC): Adds Iranian denial of talks starting in first paragraph.
