Oil Climbs, Bitcoin Slips on US-Iran Tanker Strikes and Jobs Data
US Central Command confirmed strikes on three Iranian oil tankers near Kharg Island, Jask and the Gulf of Oman over the weekend, extending maritime enforcement that has redirected dozens of ships. WTI rose about 1% to roughly $92.70–$95, extending September gains above 6% from July lows near $70, while Brent hovered near $95 after a prior weekly jump of more than 6%. Bitcoin fell nearly 1% to around $79,400–$79,700 after trading near $80,000, as higher energy prices and Friday’s stronger-than-expected August payrolls of 162,000 jobs raised questions about the Federal Reserve’s path.
The backdrop includes renewed US-Iran exchanges that have kept Strait of Hormuz shipping depressed and diesel prices elevated. Global yields had already climbed, with Japan’s 10-year touching 3% and the US 10-year near 4.8%. Fed Governor Waller had signaled openness to holding rates on favorable inflation data, but the jobs print (unemployment steady at 4.1%, wages +3.1% y/y) strengthened the hawkish case ahead of this week’s PPI and CPI and the mid-September FOMC. President Trump publicly demanded lower rates, adding political pressure.
Key tensions center on whether oil-driven inflation forces the Fed to hold or hike despite presidential calls for cuts, and how risk assets like Bitcoin price the resulting policy uncertainty versus pure geopolitical risk. Markets finished the prior week nearly flat despite violent intraday swings, with energy outperforming. Uncertainty over the Fed’s reaction function, rather than any single data point, appears to be the nearer-term headwind for crypto liquidity.
Sources: ZeroHedge, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, OilPrice.com.
Liquid Network Paused After $320M Alleged White-Hat Withdrawal
Actors claiming to be white-hat hackers withdrew roughly 4,000 BTC (about $320 million) from Liquid Network’s federation wallet, representing most of its ~4,200 BTC reserves. The Bitcoin sidechain, used by exchanges for faster settlement via L-BTC, halted new transactions and bridge activity; exchanges paused L-BTC deposits and withdrawals. Blockstream attributed the move to a bug in the Elements software rather than compromised keys; funds exited via the approved SideSwap peg-out.
Liquid, launched by Blockstream in 2018 and overseen by a federation of more than 80 members, issues L-BTC against locked bitcoin to enable quicker trades. Other assets on the network (USDT, RWAs) were unaffected. The actors communicated via on-chain messages, stating they would return most funds only after the vulnerability is patched across all nodes and the fix is confirmed. SideSwap said its authorization key was not compromised.
The episode highlights ongoing risks in federated sidechain models and software-layer bugs, coming amid a year of elevated crypto exploits. It remains unclear when the network will resume or whether the bitcoin will be returned in full; the conditional offer introduces both potential recovery and prolonged operational uncertainty for users and exchanges relying on Liquid for settlement.
Sources: CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine.