Anticipated Iran deal triggers a massive short squeeze driving Bitcoin toward $75K, while Foundry's Zcash pool and a regulatory advisory shift fuel a broad DeFi rally. Today’s crypto market staged a strong rebound as expectations of the easing in US-Iran tensions helped restore confidence across risk assets. Total crypto market capitalization recovered to USD 2.6 trillion, marking its highest level in about a month. According to the latest market data, optimism around a possible agreement between the United States and Iran supported a broad-based rally across major sectors. DeFi led the move with a 5% gain over the past 24 hours, while tokens such as LDO and AAVE both posted notable rises. Bitcoin rose 4.51% and broke above $74,000. Ethereum climbed 7.56% and moved back above $2,300. As prices accelerated higher, the market was hit by a sharp short squeeze, and derivatives positioning expanded quickly. Bitcoin open interest increased 8.48% over the past 24 hours to USD 56.108 billion. Although CME FedWatch data still show a 99% probability that the Federal Reserve will leave rates unchanged in April, market behavior has clearly shifted away from defensive positioning and toward renewed risk-taking. That rebound also lifted Layer 1, Layer 2, and RWA tokens, while traders now remain focused on whether this rally can attract sufficient spot demand to sustain momentum.

Crypto Markets Overview

Crypto market sentiment has moved off deeply depressed levels and entered a clear recovery phase. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index rose from 12 yesterday to 21 today. The reading still sits in Extreme Fear territory, but the magnitude of the rebound shows that underlying sentiment has improved sharply in a short period. Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations across the crypto market reached USD 531 million. Long liquidations accounted for USD 104 million, while short liquidations surged to USD 427 million. This reflects a rapid squeeze on bearish positions after Bitcoin and Ethereum pushed through key resistance levels. A total of 177,626 traders were liquidated during the same period. In derivatives, funding conditions remained mixed between the two largest assets. Bitcoin’s average 8-hour funding rate stood at -0.0067%, which suggests that some hedging pressure is still present. Ethereum’s average 8-hour funding rate came in at 0.0017%, pointing to a more neutral-to-slightly-bullish setup. At the same time, whale positioning showed growing divergence. One whale holding more than USD 100 million in assets continued adding to leveraged short positions in BTC and ETH, with cumulative losses now exceeding USD 66.19 million. Another high-win-rate whale also opened short positions in both assets, with total exposure above USD 25 million. These moves highlight how aggressively leveraged participants are still fighting the rebound, even as prices move higher.

Source: Alternative

Key News Highlights:

Foundry Launches Zcash Mining Pool and Quickly Secures a 29% Hashrate Share

Foundry Digital, a major crypto mining pool operator, has officially launched a dedicated mining pool for privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash. The company said the pool has already secured 29.2% of the Zcash network hashrate through partnerships with multiple institutional mining clients. This development has materially changed the network’s mining structure and reduced ViaBTC’s dominance from around 65% to about 37%. Foundry said institutional and public miners have been looking for a compliant and purpose-built Zcash mining solution, which was a key reason behind the launch. The company also introduced a Zcash block explorer and disclosed that the Foundry Zcash Pool has already mined 2,344 blocks since going live. Because Zcash produces a block roughly every 75 seconds, the pool was able to build shares quickly after launch. The rise of Foundry’s pool has also eased previous concerns about concentrated hashrate on the network, an issue that had been flagged as a security risk in the past. Following both the mining pool launch and broader market recovery, ZEC has remained one of the stronger-performing proof-of-work assets, with a 77.2% gain over the past month and a market capitalization of USD 6.2 billion.

Former CFTC Chair Giancarlo Leaves Law to Focus on Crypto Advisory

Chris Giancarlo, the former chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has announced that he is stepping away from legal practice to become a full-time adviser to crypto and fintech firms. Giancarlo, who became widely known as “Crypto Dad” for his support of digital assets during his time in office, said he is leaving law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and retiring from law altogether. He stated that he will now devote his time to advising founders, builders, CEOs, and boards in fintech and digital assets, while also continuing his work in public policy research and nonprofit programs. Giancarlo served as a CFTC commissioner from 2014 and later held the role of chairman between August 2017 and July 2018. During that period, he oversaw the approval of the first Bitcoin futures markets in the United States and became one of the earliest senior regulators to publicly advocate for a clearer regulatory path for the crypto sector. He has remained active in crypto policy discussions since leaving office and has also advised digital asset firms on regulation and strategic development. Giancarlo recently reiterated that digital assets represent part of the new architecture of finance and argued that US financial institutions must modernize and adopt this technology to remain globally competitive. His move reflects a broader trend of former regulatory officials taking on roles within the crypto industry.

Bitcoin Nears $75,000 as Iran Deal Hopes Trigger a $400 Million Short Squeeze

Bitcoin climbed to its highest level in nearly a month as hopes for a US-Iran agreement helped lift sentiment across global risk assets and triggered a broad crypto market rally. Total crypto market capitalization rose to USD 2.6 trillion, while more than 177,000 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours. Total liquidations reached USD 531 million, with about 80% of that amount coming from leveraged short positions in Bitcoin and Ether. Those short liquidations totaled roughly USD 427 million and became the main force behind the sharp upside move. Bitcoin briefly approached the $75,000 level before facing resistance and pulling back, while Ether posted an even stronger daily advance and reached its highest level since early February. Market participants linked the rally to rising expectations that the United States and Iran may be moving closer to a deal after weeks of conflict that had weighed on broader markets. This shift in geopolitical expectations improved confidence in higher-risk assets and helped support buying across crypto. Even so, market data suggest that the latest move has been driven primarily by derivatives rather than clear spot-led accumulation. The rally also added more than USD 100 billion to total crypto market value, making it one of the strongest short-squeeze-driven recoveries in recent weeks.

Trending Tokens:

• $GENIUS (Genius)

Genius has drawn strong market attention after the trading terminal recently announced a strategic revision to its airdrop allocation model. By introducing a new refund mechanism, the protocol allows participants to burn their entire token allocation in exchange for a share of the platform’s net fees collected. This policy is designed to respond to community feedback and to prioritize long term alignment by giving users a choice between fee recovery and the upside potential of holding the token. Following its listing across major exchanges, the token’s heat index surged as users actively reassessed the terminal’s utility across multiple chains, including Solana and BNB Chain. Institutional backing from prominent investors such as Balaji Srinivasan and CMCC Global has further reinforced its position as a professional grade DeFi execution environment.

• $PIEVERSE (Pieverse)

$PIEVERSE entered the public spotlight after successfully completing its final Booster rewards campaign, which distributed 30,000,000 tokens to early participants. This milestone marked a transition from initial testing into the rollout of the Purr-Fect Skill Store, a decentralized marketplace for AI agent capabilities. The protocol stands out for using the x402b standard to enable gasless and auditable onchain payments, while also integrating timestamped invoices and receipts. Market interest has been supported by the upcoming launch of a Web3 native agent CLI, along with merchant payment skills designed to connect real world commerce with blockchain infrastructure. Backed by UOB Venture and Animoca Brands, the project holds a strategic position at the intersection of agentic finance and decentralized payment systems. The recent token distribution has also catalyzed a notable increase in onchain activity and social engagement across the BNB Chain ecosystem. 

• $BLESS (Bless)

Bless has emerged as a high interest asset within the DePIN sector as it scales a shared compute protocol powered by everyday devices. Formerly known as Blockless, the project has secured USD 8 million in funding to develop a system that automatically connects idle hardware with compute tasks that need to be executed. The protocol allows users to run background applications and websites in exchange for rewards, which broadens access to distributed computing resources across multiple ecosystems such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Cosmos. Over the past week, the project’s heat index surged by more than 500% as the market responded to expectations of further infrastructure expansion. Participation from core investors including NGC Ventures and M31 Capital highlights the value of its model in delivering scalable solutions for developers and cloud computing workloads. Its technical focus remains centered on seamlessly integrating non professional hardware into a collaborative network capable of handling complex offchain tasks. This narrative around resource monetization and decentralized cloud services continues to drive market momentum behind $BLESS as a core infrastructure asset.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this section is for informational purposes only and doesn't represent any investment advice or FameEX's official view.