BTC surges 5% to $71,000 as Trump postpones Iran escalation

Crypto prices surged on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said the nation would postpone attacks against Iran’s power plants for five days, easing concerns the conflict would escalate.

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 sign up.

Bitcoin BTC$68,358.29 rebounded almost 5% above $71,000 in the early morning U.S. hours after sinking below $68,000 overnight. Ether (ETH), DOGE$0.09045, solana (SOL and Chainlink LINK$8.6549 were up 5% over the past 24 hours as cryptocurrencies jumped across the board.

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 of that hitting 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%.

Despite the knee-jerk risk-on reaction in markets 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.