BizwavemediaPersonal Finance and Crypto Updates

Tehran will require vessels, especially those carrying crude oil, to use digital currencies like Bitcoin for toll payments to cross the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil and gas, Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union told the Financial Times..

The toll, about $1 per barrel, must be paid in crypto after tankers submit details of their cargo. Empty vessels are exempt, but all ships will be monitored to prevent weapons smuggling during the two-week ceasefire.

Iran plans to guide ships along the northern route near its coast, and vessels that ignore the rules face warnings of military strikes.

The process is slow, allowing only a few ships per day to transit safely, creating a backlog in the Gulf. Shipping companies like Maersk are taking a cautious approach while terms are clarified.

Shipping companies pay yuan and stablecoins to transit Hormuz

According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controlled safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz with tolls paid in Chinese yuan or stablecoins.

Ship operators had to submit detailed vessel, cargo, and crew information to an IRGC-linked intermediary, and approved vessels received permit codes and routing instructions. Some ships temporarily changed flags and were escorted through the so-called “Iranian tollbooth.”

While framed as a security measure, the system created legal challenges, sanctions concerns, and higher insurance costs due to regional attacks.

Iran and US agree two-week ceasefire as Strait of Hormuz reopens

Iran and the US on Tuesday agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire, during which shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz will be permitted. The ceasefire follows coordinated attacks by the US and Israel on Iran and comes after President Donald Trump issued threats of extreme retaliation if the strait remained closed.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who facilitated the negotiations, confirmed that the ceasefire was effective immediately.

The US will pause military operations against Iran for two weeks contingent on Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warning troops remain ready if needed. Iran has allowed vessel transit and outlined a 10-point plan covering regional conflicts, sanctions relief, and nuclear restraint.

Bitcoin surged more than 5% on Tuesday evening, climbing above $72,500 after President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the US would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks if Tehran agrees to the complete, immediate, and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The move lifted broader risk sentiment across crypto and global markets.

Crypto assets rallied on the news, with Bitcoin climbing back above $72,500 for the first time since mid March. Ether followed, rising more than 7% to around $2,260, while Solana gained 8% to nearly $87 and XRP rose more than 5% to about $1.40. The biggest winner over the past 24 hours was privacy coin Zcash, which jumped more than 26%.

The announcement also sent oil sharply lower, with prices falling nearly 15% on the day to around $94, roughly in line with late March levels. Equity futures also moved higher, with S&P 500 futures rising nearly 2.3% and Nasdaq futures gaining 2.7%.

Trump said the pause followed conversations with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, and described the proposal as a double-sided ceasefire. The arrangement is contingent on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and comes after Pakistan mediated a two-week truce proposal.

The move marks a sharp reversal from earlier in the day, when markets were still bracing for a possible escalation. Investors were counting down to Trump’s latest deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait.

Bitcoin’s price dropped back below $68,000 on Tuesday as geopolitical uncertainty surged after US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Iran of potential destruction, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight.”

“I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in the early morning. He added that with a “complete and total regime change” in place, there was potential for positive developments, and called the moment one of the most important in Iran’s recent history.

“47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end,” he said.

Markets, which had been cautiously digesting weeks of US–Iran military escalation under the campaign branded “Operation Epic Fury,” interpreted President Trump’s statement as a sign that things might get considerably worse. The announcement sent crude oil sharply higher, with US crude above $114, and Bitcoin sold off hard as risk assets came under pressure.

In the last 24 hours, Ether slipped 3.5% to hover around $2,000. BNB declined 2%, and XRP and Solana were down approximately 4% each. The total crypto market capitalization declined 2% to $2.4 trillion.

On institutional demand, there is a sign of renewed accumulation following weeks of mixed sentiment. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest single-day inflow on Monday as investors poured $471 million.

Analysts suggest these flows reflect forward-looking positioning, as investors anticipate possible shifts in global monetary policy.

Still, the market faces headwinds. Rising oil prices, geopolitical tensions, and persistent inflation concerns reduce expectations of imminent rate cuts. Market structure also appears fragile, with limited organic demand and increased downside risk below key price levels.

Charles Schwab is telling investors to keep crypto sizing modest if they decide to add digital assets to a broader portfolio, arguing that Bitcoin and Ether can quickly reshape portfolio risk even at low weights.

In a new April 6 note, Schwab outlined two main frameworks for crypto allocation: a traditional approach based on expected returns, volatility, and correlation, and a risk budgeting approach that starts with how much overall portfolio risk an investor is willing to assign to crypto.

The report stops short of endorsing any standard allocation. Instead, Schwab says there is no correct crypto weight and that the decision is largely personal. The firm framed the issue around investment horizon, loss tolerance, familiarity with digital assets, and whether the investor wants exposure to a specific token or broader crypto exposure.

Schwab’s main warning is volatility. Using data through October 31, 2025, the firm said bitcoin posted annualized volatility of 72.1% and a maximum drawdown of 73.4%, while ether showed annualized volatility of 98.3% and a maximum drawdown of 87.8%. Those figures were materially higher than traditional assets such as US large-cap equities, core fixed income, or cash, reinforcing the argument that even small crypto positions can have an outsized effect on portfolio behavior.

Under Schwab’s traditional allocation framework, portfolio weights can swing dramatically depending on the investor’s assumed return. The firm said a 15% expected annual return for Bitcoin would imply a 1.0% allocation in a conservative portfolio, 6.6% in a moderate portfolio, and 8.8% in an aggressive portfolio.

For Ether, which Schwab describes as historically more volatile, the same 15% return assumption would imply 0.1%, 2.0%, and 2.5% allocations across those three portfolio types. Schwab added that if expected returns fall below 10%, neither Bitcoin nor Ether appears to offer enough risk-adjusted return to justify an allocation even for aggressive investors.

The second method focuses less on forecasting performance and more on limiting risk contribution. In that framework, Schwab modeled how much Bitcoin or Ether could be added while capping crypto’s share of total portfolio volatility at 5%, 10%, or 15%. Because of the assets’ historical volatility, the suggested weights stayed low.

Schwab said a conservative portfolio would need only a 1.2% Bitcoin allocation or a 0.9% Ether allocation to reach a 10% crypto risk contribution. In moderate and aggressive portfolios, the Bitcoin allocations needed to hit that same threshold rose to 2.8% and 4.0%, while Ether allocations were 2.0% and 2.9%.

Schwab published the piece as the brokerage continues to expand its own crypto push. The firm has said it remains on track to launch spot Bitcoin and Ether trading in the first half of 2026, adding direct access to an offering set that already includes ETFs and futures-related products.

Investors poured $471 million into US spot Bitcoin ETFs on April 6, the largest single-day gain since late February, according to Farside Investors.

BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC topped the inflows, followed by ARK Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB. Other competing funds posted smaller gains.

IBIT pulled in roughly $182 million, and FBTC added approximately $147 million. Together, the two products made up about $329 million of the day’s total inflows, a ratio consistent with their dominance of the spot Bitcoin ETF category since these funds launched in January 2024.

The inflows came during a period of sharp price swings. Bitcoin declined as much as 45% from its October 2025 peak. At press time, the digital asset was trading at $68,714, per CoinGecko.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs now hold approximately $90 billion in total assets, led by IBIT with $54.5 billion, or nearly 60% of the market. Cumulative net inflows have reached an estimated $56 billion.

The first quarter of 2026 was uneven. January and February saw roughly $1.8 billion in net outflows as concerns about Federal Reserve policy and sticky inflation prints weighed on risk sentiment. March brought a partial turnaround, with $1.3 billion flowing back into Bitcoin ETFs as prices stabilized.

Despite renewed interest in Bitcoin ETFs, experts caution that the trend could shift rapidly if inflation surprises to the upside. Market attention is focused on Friday’s March CPI release, along with February’s core PCE report released Thursday, April 9.

Shares of Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) rose about 7% intraday Monday after the company said it added 71,252 ETH over the past week and secured approval for a New York Stock Exchange uplisting.

Data from Yahoo Finance shows that BMNR rose to as high as $20.6 after the market open, though the stock remains down 23% year-to-date. Over the past year, shares have rallied roughly 187%.

The Ethereum-focused firm ranks among the most actively traded US stocks, with average daily dollar volume of about $987 million over the four days through April 2, according to Fundstrat. That places it 96th nationwide, just behind Schlumberger and ahead of Adobe among more than 5,700 listed companies.

BMNR shares will cease trading on the junior exchange after the close on April 8 and transition to the senior board the following morning. The ticker symbol will remain unchanged.

Bitmine holds nearly 4% of ETH supply

With the latest ETH acquisition, Bitmine now holds 4.8 million ETH, valued at around $10.2 billion. Its ETH stash represents almost 4% of supply.

The company also owns 198 BTC, equity stakes in Beast Industries and Eightco, and $864 million in cash. In total, it has $11.4 billion in crypto, cash, and venture-style “moonshot” investments.

On ETH’s price actions, chairman Tom Lee said he was impressed by the asset’s relative strength during ongoing geopolitical conflict.

“We expect ETH leadership to strengthen investors and eventually take cash off the sidelines,” Lee stated. “Ethereum continues to benefit from the dual tailwinds of Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain and from agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains.”

Staking operations scale rapidly

Bitmine disclosed that over 3,3 million ETH, worth approximately $7 billion at current prices, is now staked, making the firm the single largest Ethereum staker globally by its own account.

The staked total represents about 69% of the company’s full ETH treasury and runs through MAVAN, the Made in America VAlidator Network, which the company launched as an institutional-grade platform.

Initially built to support Bitmine’s own treasury, MAVAN is designed to eventually serve external institutional investors, custodians, and ecosystem partners.

Annualized staking revenues currently sit at $196 million, based on a seven-day yield of 2.78%. At full deployment, when the entire ETH treasury is staked through MAVAN and its partners, the company projects annual staking rewards of $282 million.

Bitcoin opened the week flashing a warning as profit-taking transactions nearly tripled those at a loss.

Analytics firm Santiment reported that Bitcoin closed the weekend with a ratio of 2.95 profitable transactions for every single loss-realizing transaction.

When profits are widespread, investors are more likely to sell and lock in returns. In other words, this pattern has historically been associated with short-term tops and potential price pullbacks.

🤯 According to our on-chain data, Bitcoin finished the weekend with a ratio of 2.95 transactions with coins in profit (at the time of being obtained, then being moved) for every 1.00 transaction with coins at a loss. Historically, this has been a short-term price top signal. pic.twitter.com/KjKCxbBmN3

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 6, 2026

Santiment noted that the inverse pattern, when loss transactions exceed profitable ones, has functioned as a reliable buy signal.

Bitcoin and altcoins rally on potential 45-day ceasefire

Bitcoin was trading at $69,625 at press time, up about 4% in the last 24 hours, according to TradingView.

The largest crypto asset reclaimed $70,000 in the early hours of Monday amid mounting optimism over US-Iran ceasefire talks.

Major tokens including Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and BNB also rose, pushing the total crypto market cap past $2.5 trillion.

Although the rally marked the top of Bitcoin’s five-week war range, resistance between $71,500 and $81,200 remains, and the market’s next moves depend on the outcome of the ceasefire negotiations.