Bitcoin Falls to $71K After Iran Talks Collapse

Bitcoin fell to about $71,000 after peace talks involving Iran ended without an agreement, market data show. The meeting, held over roughly 21 hours at the Serena Hotel, ended when Iranian negotiators would not agree to abandon nuclear weapons. Vice President JD Vance announced the talks had failed late Saturday, and President Donald Trump posted that the U.S. Navy would begin blockading ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, effective immediately.

The geopolitical news pushed oil prices higher and coincided with selling in crypto markets. Bitcoin slid from above $73,000 to near $71,000, while ether moved from above $2,300 to below $2,200. On some trading venues, U.S. crude briefly topped $100 per barrel.

On-chain analytics firm Glassnode reported that holders were realizing about $20 million in profits each hour for balances above $70,000. That level of profit-taking corresponded with increased selling pressure as prices retraced.

Financial institutions continued to expand crypto offerings amid the volatility. Morgan Stanley recently launched a spot Bitcoin ETF and is exploring tokenized money-market funds, crypto tax-loss harvesting through its Parametric unit, and in-house bitcoin yield and lending services. Amy Oldenburg, head of digital-asset strategy at Morgan Stanley, described a tokenized money-market fund as “definitely a path forward.” The firm has filed for ether and solana ETFs and plans to offer crypto trading on its E*TRADE platform through a custody partner in the first half of 2026.

A technical proposal from a researcher at StarkWare outlines a method to make Bitcoin transactions more resistant to future quantum attacks without a protocol fork. The Quantum-Safe Bitcoin scheme combines hash-based puzzles and Lamport signatures within existing scripting limits. The proposal requires an off-chain search of about 70 trillion attempts per transaction, work that could be performed with GPUs at an estimated cost of a few hundred dollars. Transactions created under the proposal would be non-standard, bypass the public mempool, and carry higher costs, limiting their immediate practical use.

Regulatory developments over the weekend included a renewed assertion of federal authority over prediction markets. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig stated the agency will defend its exclusive regulatory jurisdiction in court for contracts traded on designated contract markets, regardless of whether contracts concern sports, politics, or other events. The federal government and the CFTC recently filed lawsuits against several states that attempted to shut down some prediction platforms. A federal appellate ruling on April 6 backed the CFTC’s claim to exclusive jurisdiction for products traded on designated contract markets; another appeals court is due to hear a consolidated case next week.

A public dispute in the private sector involved investor Justin Sun and World Liberty Financial. Sun, who invested about $75 million in the project, accused the team of embedding a backdoor blacklisting function in the WLFI token contract that would allow the company to freeze or confiscate holders’ tokens. Sun called for the team to unlock remaining tokens and increase transparency. WLFI responded that it has evidence and threatened legal action. In September 2025, WLFI froze Sun’s wallet and blocked roughly 595 million unlocked tokens.

Market flows showed continued demand for institutional crypto products despite the swings. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $240 million in net inflows on Friday, bringing the weekly total to about $816.9 million. Ether-focused funds also saw inflows, with $64.9 million on Friday and roughly $187 million for the week. Analysts monitoring order books noted profit-taking above current price levels could influence short-term attempts to push prices higher toward previous peaks.