Bitcoin price briefly touched $78,000 yesterday, a level not seen since early February, before pulling back slightly to stabilize at current support levels. The move was prompted by the announcement of a two-week truce between the United States and Iran, which led to a collapse in crude oil prices and spurred the liquidation of short liquidations worth $427 million, easing the risk premium in the Strait of Hormuz that had been putting risky assets under pressure for several months.
$543,000,000,000 was added to US stocks as the market opened. pic.twitter.com/2GZBAZ5CI3
-Ash Crypt (@AshCrypto) April 17, 2026
Crypto-related stocks outperformed Bitcoin itself during the recovery phase; Shares of Coinbase, Robinhood and Strategy jumped at least 25% as of Friday’s close, while BTC saw gains of just under 7% over the same five trading days. This performance is solid taken separately, but remains modest compared to the stock market gains linked to the sector.
Alex Saunders, an analyst at Citi Bank, clearly highlighted this dynamic, saying: “Correlations between cryptocurrencies and stocks have strengthened after a recent decline,” with stocks now leading cryptocurrencies with them higher.
Meanwhile, Tether has resumed Bitcoin accumulation, with blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence confirming that 951 BTC were transferred to a wallet titled “Tether: BTC Reserve”, adding discreet but influential purchasing power.
Will the price of Bitcoin cross the $80,000 barrier before the truce ends?
After reclaiming the 50-day EMA during the truce-induced recovery rally, Bitcoin trading volumes increased alongside the short-term squeeze. There are still $6 billion in leveraged short positions accumulated between $72,200 and $73,500, with peak intensity around $72,500. This zone has already been crossed, fueling the current bullish wave.
The current technical setup places resistance between $75,000 and $80,000 against strong support at $62,000, which represents the bottom of the 2-month-old consolidation range.
If the truce holds, expectations of a Fed rate cut could strengthen due to falling oil data and inflation, in which case spot demand could push the Bitcoin price past the $80,000 barrier. Forecast models indicate an average price of $78,600 with a high approaching $82,500.
The whale data adds remarkable detail; Only for the second time in 2026 have wallets holding more than 10,000 BTC seen net inflows, indicating organic accumulation. However, some analysts, including Canary Capital’s Steve McClurg, believe that 2026 still represents the “downward phase” of Bitcoin’s four-year cycle, a period that historically sees declines of 60% to 80% from peaks.
Bitcoin Hyper Project Aims for Early Gains as Market Awaits Confirmation
Bitcoin at $76,000 is a recovery zone and not a new price discovery zone. Given current market value, doubling the price would require an injection of around $3 trillion in new capital. These calculations have led some traders to redirect part of their investments towards infrastructure projects built on top of the Bitcoin network itself.
The Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) project stands out as the first layer 2 of Bitcoin to integrate with the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM), combining the security of the Bitcoin network with smart contract execution that the project claims outperforms Solana in terms of latency.
The project aims to address Bitcoin’s three structural weaknesses: slow transactions, high fees, and a lack of programmability. The presale raised $32 million at a token price that currently stands at $0.0136, with the staking feature enabled with high annual returns for early participants. Features include a decentralized bridge for BTC transfers and executing fast, low-cost transactions aimed at enabling decentralized finance (DeFi) on the Bitcoin network.
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