Bitcoin traded around $64,500 on the morning of Aug. 19 after climbing from below $64,000 over the previous 24 hours, even as macro and geopolitical headlines stayed tense. The immediate focus for traders is a White House crypto policy meeting scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Aug. 19, where Donald Trump, SEC Chair Atkins and CFTC Chair Selig are set to appear. Against that backdrop, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted a net inflow of $297.56 million on Aug. 18, snapping a three-day streak of outflows, while spot Ether ETFs added another $30.85 million. The source article argues that markets are currently pricing the policy event more heavily than the breakdown in the U.S.-Iran 60-day negotiation window. Trump said there are no current talks and no new talks scheduled with Iran, while Iranian officials described a shift toward a "full offensive" posture and said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until conditions tied to a June interim deal are met. Oil reacted sharply, with Brent settling at $91.02 a barrel and WTI at $84.94, both the highest closes since July 24. At the same time, the report points to improving Bitcoin technicals, including a move above the 50-day and 200-day EMAs, a MACD golden cross, and a Fear and Greed Index rebound to 41. The key near-term level highlighted in the piece is $65,000, with the White House meeting seen as the main catalyst for the next directional move.

Iranian Army Commander-in-Chief Hatami said on Aug. 16 that U.S. forces had been expelled and were no longer permitted to enter the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, or the Strait of Hormuz. He also said U.S. bases in the region would never return to their previous condition and that Iran would not allow that to happen. The update was cited by CCTV International and published by Odaily as a 7x24 newsflash. No additional operational details were provided in the brief report.

Global risk appetite improved over the past week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both reaching fresh recent highs as trading shifted away from defensive positioning and back toward rate-cut expectations and AI earnings delivery. Technology and chip stocks led the move, while South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 11.5% for the week, ending a seven-week losing streak and returning to technical bull market territory. The U.S. dollar index was nearly flat on the week, though softer inflation data lowered expectations for further Federal Reserve rate hikes and an unexpected decline in Friday retail sales accelerated the dollar’s drop. For the coming week, markets are focused on three variables. The first is whether shipping through the Strait of Hormuz can make real progress, as Iran and Oman are working to align on shipping routes and a navigation map, even as the U.S. remains outside the talks and keeps a hard line. The second is the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes, due early Thursday Beijing time, with attention on whether more policymakers favored hikes and how officials viewed the spread of energy and tariff pressures into services prices. The third is Friday’s preliminary U.S. and European PMI data, which could reinforce expectations that the Fed stays on hold in September if the readings weaken.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baghaei said on Aug. 15 local time that talks between Iran and Oman are still moving forward despite what he described as U.S. obstruction. He said the two sides have reached an agreement on a navigation passage plan for the Strait of Hormuz. The update was reported by Odaily.

Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran has not yet decided whether it will resume talks with the United States. He said Qatar and Pakistan are currently exchanging information with Iran, but stressed that those contacts should not be treated as negotiations. He also said Iran’s talks with Oman are being handled separately and are focused on maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz. The remarks draw a line between message-passing through regional countries and any formal negotiation track. Based on the statement, there is no decision at this stage from Iran on restarting talks with Washington. The update was carried by Odaily and attributed to Jin10.

U.S. stocks closed lower for a second straight session as investors waited for July CPI data, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.34%, the S&P 500 off 0.32%, and the Nasdaq falling 0.6%. The market tone turned cautious as a standoff around the Strait of Hormuz kept oil elevated and Federal Reserve officials delivered fresh hawkish comments, leaving traders roughly split on whether the Fed could raise rates in September or stay on hold. At the same time, leadership inside technology stocks continued to fracture. Mega-cap names broadly weighed on indexes, while semiconductors, storage, optical networking, AI cloud infrastructure, and alternative asset managers outperformed. Strong earnings and guidance from CoreWeave, Lumentum, and Super Micro Computer fueled gains across AI infrastructure names, while Nvidia steadied after Jensen Huang addressed concerns tied to a newly announced $500 billion compute financing platform. The session also highlighted rising overlap between AI infrastructure and financial markets. CME plans to launch H100 and B200 GPU compute futures on Oct. 5, while lawmakers in Washington stepped up pressure on OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta over AI development. Investors are now watching CPI, energy reports from EIA, OPEC, and IEA, earnings from Cisco, Coherent, and Cerebras, and Google’s upcoming product event for the next move across rates, oil, and AI-linked equities.

Federal Reserve officials struck a hawkish tone again, pushing markets to treat the upcoming U.S. July CPI report as the main input for September rate pricing. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said fast-rising prices remain the biggest economic problem, while Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said multiple rate hikes may be needed to bring inflation back to the 2% target. CME data shows expectations for a September hold and a hike are roughly balanced. Geopolitical pressure is also building. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz remain unresolved after Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Rezaei said the waterway would not reopen unless the U.S. accepts ceasefire conditions including asset unfreezing and an end to related regional fighting. In parallel, the U.S. military fired missiles in the Gulf of Oman at a Panama-flagged cargo ship heading to an Iranian port, while Houthi attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb targeted Saudi and Egyptian vessels and caused crew deaths. Across markets, oil stayed supported, major U.S. indexes fell, and crypto traded under pressure. BTC slipped below $64,000, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded another day of net outflows, and leveraged liquidations skewed heavily toward longs. Nvidia, meanwhile, saw some concern ease after Jensen Huang clarified the company’s role in a previously misunderstood compute financing plan.

Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made a statement on August 11 in which he accused the United States of being the source of insecurity in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman. He asserted that Washington had put the whole region at risk by forcing an illegal war on Iran. According to Rezaei, the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened as long as the US fails to change its behavior and accept Iran's conditions. He called on the United States to end the war and to pay the frozen Iranian funds. He further declared that all regional wars, including those in Lebanon and Gaza, must be ended, and that Washington must fulfill additional conditions that were transmitted to the US through intermediaries. On the matter of transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz, Rezaei stated that if Iran and Oman reach an agreement on the transit corridor, that agreement will be dealt with separately from the issue of the blockade.