Bitcoin Pops on Trump's Calls for Pause In Iran Conflict

Markets got a jolt this week after President Trump announced a pause in the conflict with Iran, calling on the Department of War to postpone military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period.

Oil prices plunged roughly 10% on the news, while stocks rallied and Bitcoin caught a bid to top $71,000 in the morning.

But as we discussed last week, the more telling chart right now might not be Bitcoin by itself — but rather the rotation away from gold.

The Wall Street Journal documented the largest gold ETF, GLD, seeing a significant top in terms of flows, with $6 billion coming out of that fund since the conflict began. That’s the rotation trade that Falcon X’s Josh Lim flagged on Coinage last week, arguing the move from gold into Bitcoin had bottomed. Looking at the chart now, that call is holding up.

Crypto Fund Flows Buck That Trend

Despite the geopolitical noise, digital asset investment products recorded their fourth consecutive week of net inflows. CoinShares’ latest data showed $230 million coming in last week — a step down from the prior three weeks, but positive nonetheless. Bitcoin led the way with $219 million, and Solana notched seven straight weeks of inflows.

On the DAT side of things, BitMine — led by Tom Lee — returned to the market with roughly $142 million in ETH purchases. The company has a stated goal of accumulating 5% of Ethereum’s total outstanding supply, what they call “the alchemy of 5%,” and they’re now at 3.86% — about 77% of the way there.

Tom Lee, for his part, remains firmly in the bull camp, arguing that crypto has exited what he’s been calling a “mini-winter” and that a positive March is still on the table. The Iran news, if it holds, plays directly into that thesis.

Meanwhile, Strategy’s Michael Saylor also continues to buy with the company’s latest purchase coming in at $77 million. His lifetime tracker shows paper losses now exceeding $3 billion, down about 5%. The question hanging over both Saylor and Lee’s purchases is the same one that keeps institutional allocators cautious: What happens to the floor when the biggest buyers slow down?

Strategy, for its part, filed a $42 billion at the market (ATM) offering building on its prior raises to ensure its firepower stays strong. The company revealed it plans to split the asks between $21 billion of Class A common stock (MSTR) and $21 billion of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, or Stretch (STRC), according to the company's paperwork.

SBF’s Mom Speaks Out

Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, sat down with CNN this week to make the case for a presidential pardon for her son following the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX.

Fried told the network that Sam, “was the victim of an out of control prosecution,” adding, “I know that Trump himself feels he was.”

CNN’s Michael Smerconish, who conducted the interview, found himself defending the segment to his own viewers in real time. Before the piece even aired, he acknowledged the public skepticism, saying, “my own view is that many of us reached conclusions about Sam Bankman-Fried without really understanding the facts of the case.”

Coinage previously interviewed SBF from his parents’ home ahead of the trial and covered his defense with the help of Bernie Madoff’s former prosecutor.

Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler Re-Emerges

Gary Gensler resurfaced on Bloomberg, offering his first substantial public comments since his successor Paul Atkins took over at the SEC.

On prediction markets, Gensler acknowledged the nuance — “there’s parts of it that is just hedging, right? Economic risk” — but drew a hard line at sports betting, calling it simply “gaming.”

On the broader regulatory environment, he was more pointed: “We were in a better system and a better rule of law when these decisions were not made in the White House.” He also raised concern that new rules being made right now could threaten the standing of American capital markets.

His comments land as Congress is reportedly working toward a bipartisan bill to curb sports betting on prediction market platforms — a sign the regulatory conversation isn’t going away. And with Chair Atkins and the head of the CFTC both slated to speak at this week’s Digital Asset Summit in New York, expect the regulatory picture to get a bit clearer.

Crypto’s Top Project Crowned

Finally, after weeks of bracket-style voting among 16 nominated projects, Coinage’s Crypto Project of the Year for 2026 has been decided: Ethereum wins.

Solana took the title last year, making this a notable swing in community sentiment even as Ethereum shifts away from its Layer-2 roadmap.

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