Bitcoin price rises after Trump delays Iran strikes, with the move tied to a verified pause in planned US attacks on Iranian power plants rather than unconfirmed social posts that framed the jump as a fresh war announcement.
March 23 delay sparks the first relief bounce
Al Jazeera reported on March 23, 2026 that Trump postponed military strikes on Iranian power plants for five days after what he described as good and productive conversations with Tehran. The confirmed catalyst in this story is that delay itself, not the unverified Telegram wording that later circulated around the move.
Decrypt wrote that after the postponement headline, Bitcoin jumped about $2,000 to $70,800, while Ether rose 5% to $2,170. That immediate reaction marked the first relief rally after traders had been positioned for a more acute geopolitical shock.
BTC stays green, but sentiment remains defensive
At the time of this run’s CoinGecko snapshot, Bitcoin was trading at $68,667.
Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin was up 1.91%, with a market cap near $1.374 trillion and 24-hour volume around $55.14 billion.
The rebound still sat inside a cautious tape: Bitcoin dominance was 56.27%, while the Fear & Greed Index stood at 8, or Extreme Fear. Those two readings help explain why traders kept crowding into BTC, a setup that also shapes whether a BTC dominance break may decide altcoin rally or crash.
With the Fear & Greed reading at 8 and BTC dominance at 56.27%, the broader backdrop still looked selective rather than fully risk-on. That lines up with Coinlive’s recent reads on why most crypto launches failed in 2025 and how blockchain is being absorbed back into legacy payment rails.
March 25 options expiry kept volatility on the clock
On March 25, 2026, Decrypt reported that nearly $15 billion in Bitcoin options were set to expire on Deribit, equal to almost 40% of the exchange’s $36.5 billion BTC open interest. That is the key distinction in the timeline: the March 23 delay triggered the bounce, while the March 25 derivatives setup kept volatility elevated afterward.
Jean-David Pequignot made that link explicit in Decrypt’s follow-up report:
“Bitcoin’s recent surge back toward $71k was catalyzed by President Donald Trump’s decision to postpone strikes on Iranian power plants for five days.”
With nearly $15 billion in expiring contracts still in view and the conflict path unresolved, traders were also watching the risk of spillover through the Strait of Hormuz. For BTC, that meant the relief rally was real, but it was still being priced against energy-route risk and event-driven macro volatility rather than a clean all-clear for risk assets.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
