Trump’s threat that ‘the entire civilization will die’ to Iran sends oil, bitcoin and stocks to a knife’s edge.
summary
- Trump warned that “an entire civilization will die tonight” if Iran misses the deadline he set for the Strait of Hormuz, which will impact the prices of oil, stocks and cryptocurrencies.
- Brent crude is hovering above $110, with traders pricing in a binary outcome: put, hold or strike.
- Bitcoin and Ethereum fall below recent highs as risk assets fluctuate ahead of Trump’s 8pm deadline in Washington.
President Donald Trump’s threat that “an entire civilization will die tonight” if Iran defies his ultimatum over the Strait of Hormuz has sent global markets into a highly volatile holding pattern as Washington’s self-imposed 8pm deadline approaches on Tuesday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned that Iran must reopen the Strait or face attacks that could bomb the country “back to the Stone Age,” explicitly naming bridges and power plants as targets. The standoff centers on a waterway that carries nearly 20% of the world’s seaborne energy exports, leaving traders to price in a binary outcome that could send oil and risk assets wildly in either direction.
According to the New York Times, Trump repeatedly He floated strikes on “power and desalination plants, oil facilities, and bridges” if Tehran did not act before time ran out, ratcheting up rhetoric he summed up as the potential destruction of “the entire civilization.” The White House denied that nuclear options were on the table, but did not back down from the president’s threat to launch a “major military attack” if Iran did not comply with midnight GMT. Vice President J.D. Vance reiterated the message, saying Tehran must understand that the United States has “tools in our toolkit that we have not decided to use yet,” adding that Trump “will decide to use them if the Iranians do not change their course of behavior.”
On the market side, Brent crude has been trading above $110 a barrel in recent days, up sharply from around $79 one month ago, as a prolonged Hormuz outage tightens supply and increases the geopolitical risk premium. The S&P 500, which recently closed near 6,600, has swung between modest gains and losses, as investors weigh ceasefire talk against Trump’s threats, with volatility gauges rising amid expectations of an “emotional reaction” if missiles are fired.
Bitcoin (Bitcoin), which briefly rose above $69,000 after Trump’s previous deadline was extended, fell back toward the mid-$68,000 area on Tuesday as traders offloaded risk alongside stocks. Bitcoin fell as much as 2.2% to around $68,460 earlier in the London session, with Ethereum falling as much as 2.8%, reflecting a broad sell-off in risk assets ahead of the ultimatum, Bloomberg reported. On crypto.news’ market cap page, Bitcoin is listed near $68,182 with a market cap of about $1.36 trillion, while Ethereum is trading at around $2,085 with a market cap of about $251.6 billion. This situation leaves both symbols exposed if the Air Raid headline triggers a rush into the dollar and Treasuries.
In a recent crypto.news story, bitcoin rose to more than $69,000 as Trump extended an Iran deadline and warned that the United States would “blow up the whole thing” if an agreement was not reached, highlighting how closely digital assets have begun to track the ebbs and flows of war. Another crypto.news story noted that Ethereum’s price action has already formed a double top, with the token falling 3.4% below $2,100 as Trump rejected an earlier Iranian proposal and reiterated that the current supply “was not enough” to cancel strikes. A separate crypto.news story on tensions with Iran reported that Trump pledged to “hit them hard” and “take them back to the stone ages,” language that now identifies tonight’s deadline as the next critical market catalyst.
