TLDR
- Bitcoin crossed the $78,000 mark for the first time in 10 weeks following Iran’s announcement that the Strait of Hormuz is open
- Iran’s Foreign Minister verified that commercial ships can pass through during the ceasefire period
- Trump stated the U.S.-Iran agreement is “mostly complete,” with critical terms already settled
- Oil futures fell 10% to approximately $85 per barrel in response to the news
- U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $664 million in net inflows on April 17, continuing a four-day run of inflows
(SeaPRwire) – Bitcoin rose sharply above $78,000 on Friday, April 17, hitting its highest value since the start of February. This uptick occurred after Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi shared on X that the Strait of Hormuz is “fully open” to commercial ships for the rest of the ongoing ceasefire.
In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organisation of the Islamic Rep. of Iran.
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) April 17, 2026
U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed the development on Truth Social. He noted that an agreement to end the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict is “mostly done,” with key provisions already settled, and remaining details are anticipated to be worked out over the weekend.
Bitcoin reached an intraday peak of $78,343, a gain of around 4.1% for the day. For the week, BTC bounced back by approximately 5%, per data from CoinMarketCap and TradingView.
Other cryptocurrency assets also trended upward. Ethereum increased by 3.3% and XRP went up by 2.4% as part of a wider risk-on shift in global markets.
Brent crude oil futures declined by roughly 10% to about $85 per barrel. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining $7 trillion over the previous three weeks, as reported by The Kobeissi Letter.
ETF Inflows and Institutional Buying
Wu Blockchain shared on X that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had $664 million in net inflows on April 17, marking four consecutive days of inflows. Spot Ethereum ETFs logged $127 million, continuing a seven-day inflow run.
On April 17 (ET), U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net inflows of $664 million, extending the inflow streak to four days. Spot Ethereum ETFs posted total net inflows of $127 million, marking seven consecutive days of inflows. pic.twitter.com/bJlzcFT23L
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 18, 2026
Bitcoin Archive stated on X that BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust has been acquiring Bitcoin for eight consecutive days, buying $284 million worth on April 17 alone. BlackRock’s total purchases now amount to $1.34 billion over those eight days.
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock has been buying Bitcoin for 8 straight days.$IBIT bought $284 million worth of Bitcoin yesterday.
Total purchases now stand at $1.34 billion in just 8 days.
Relentless accumulation. pic.twitter.com/LSSpdwQIWL
— Bitcoin Archive (@BitcoinArchive) April 18, 2026
Strategy Inc. has also bought $2.6 billion worth of Bitcoin over the last two weeks. Strategy’s shares surged by up to 16% on Friday, their largest one-day gain since February 6.
Coinbase Global increased by up to 8% and Galaxy Digital went up by over 10% on the same day.
Institutional Moves
Goldman Sachs submitted an application for a Bitcoin ETF this week, its first direct entry into the cryptocurrency investment sector. Charles Schwab revealed plans to introduce spot crypto trading in 2026 and advised clients that they could allocate up to 8.8% of their portfolio to Bitcoin.
Morgan Stanley rolled out its own Bitcoin-tracking ETF last week, becoming the first large bank to take this step.
Matt Mena, senior crypto research strategist at 21Shares, commented that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz was “the risk-on signal global markets had been waiting for.”
Bohan Jiang, senior derivatives trader at FalconX, noted that Strategy’s purchases have helped support the market in recent weeks.
Uncertainty Remains
The ceasefire is scheduled to end on April 22. The U.S. has stated that its naval blockade will remain in effect until a deal is fully finalized. Iran has warned it will close the Strait again if the blockade persists.
Axios also reported that U.S. officials are talking about unfreezing up to $20 billion in Iranian funds in return for Iran surrendering its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Derivatives data indicates traders are still cautious. Funding rates for perpetual futures were negative on Friday. Put options at $60,000 and $50,000 have high premiums, indicating hedging behavior.
As of Friday, April 17, Polymarket traders estimated the probability of Bitcoin reaching $80,000 this month at 65%.
This article is provided by a third-party content provider. SeaPRwire (https://www.seaprwire.com/) makes no warranties or representations regarding its content.
Category: Top News, Daily News
SeaPRwire provides global press release distribution services for companies and organizations, covering more than 6,500 media outlets, 86,000 editors and journalists, and over 3.5 million end-user desktop and mobile apps. SeaPRwire supports multilingual press release distribution in English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Russian, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, and more.