Bitcoin held around $86,000 on Tuesday as U.S. equities opened slightly higher, while crude prices fell after reports suggested Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week.
WTI crude dropped more than 2.5% at one point to about $89 a barrel, roughly 15% below its September peak. Brent also moved below $98. The decline followed reports citing a senior Iranian official who said Tehran could reopen the strategic shipping route within seven days if Washington reduced military pressure and removed its port blockade.
Lower energy prices could provide some relief for risk assets if the geopolitical situation continues to cool, as cheaper oil may reduce inflationary pressure and concerns about additional interest-rate increases.
Bitcoin was trading near $86,000, gaining more than 1% over 24 hours but remaining about 1.5% below Monday’s evening high above $87,000. Monday’s rally pushed BTC to roughly $87,300 before the cryptocurrency consolidated.
The reports on Hormuz were subsequently challenged by Iranian sources. LiveSquawk, citing Fars News Agency, reported that Iranian officials denied claims from Kyodo and Reuters that Tehran was prepared to reopen the Strait in exchange for an end to the U.S. blockade. WTI later rebounded to around $90.20 after falling as low as $89.16.
U.S. stocks were little changed shortly after Tuesday’s opening bell. The Nasdaq was up 0.4%, while the S&P 500 added 0.1%, following the stronger moves seen during Monday’s session.
Several technology stocks outperformed, including SanDisk, which gained 6.7%, and Google, which rose 1.9%. Financial stocks remained weaker, with JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup each down around 1%. The financial sector has been pressured by the Federal Reserve’s latest rate-hike cycle and its effect on the shape of the yield curve and lending margins.
Elsewhere in the financial sector, SoFi has started settling transactions from its $25 billion debit and credit card business using its SoFiUSD stablecoin on Mastercard’s payments network.
The arrangement uses blockchain settlement behind the scenes, allowing merchants to receive payments without needing to accept or maintain stablecoin balances. SoFiUSD is issued by SoFi Bank, a nationally chartered U.S. bank, and is redeemable one-for-one for dollars.
SoFi said it is in discussions with major U.S. merchants and intends to explore cross-border payments and remittances with Mastercard.
The stablecoin rollout comes as SoFi shares have fallen 37% year to date. Despite the decline, the company reported 40% growth in second-quarter adjusted net revenue to $1.2 billion and reached 15.8 million members. Higher Treasury yields, valuation worries and greater lending exposure have contributed to investor concerns.
Bitcoin traders are also preparing for Friday’s roughly $14 billion Deribit options expiry, which Ledn co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo called the year’s largest single expiration.
According to Di Bartolomeo, September’s quarterly expiration is effectively a two-part event. The first came last week with the expiration of options tied to BlackRock’s IBIT, which he described as the ETF’s largest expiration on record.
The IBIT options book was dominated by call contracts, with maximum pain near $40 per share. Bitcoin’s move above $80,000 pushed a significant portion of those calls above their strike prices, creating losses for dealers that had sold the contracts.
Dealers typically hedge such exposure by purchasing the underlying asset. For IBIT, that can translate into ETF share purchases, while creating new spot ETF shares requires the purchase of bitcoin, potentially transmitting the hedging effect into the BTC market.
Friday’s Deribit options carry notable call concentrations around $85,000 and $100,000. With bitcoin already above $85,000, traders will be watching those levels as the expiration approaches.
Gold was little changed over the past 24 hours at roughly $4,336 an ounce, while bitcoin continued to consolidate near $86,000.
