Bitcoin failed at the $80,000 level for the third time this month on Monday, briefly tagging $79,500 before reversing sharply, as a renewed move higher in oil prices amid stalling U.S.-Iran peace talks pushed risk assets into the red ahead of this week’s FOMC decision.

BTC last changed hands at around $76,800 per CoinGecko, down 1.8% over the past 24 hours but still up 1.2% on the week. Ether (ETH) led losses among the majors, falling 3.3% to $2,287. Meanwhile, SOL traded near $84, down 3%, XRP at $1.39, down 2.8%, and BNB at $623, down 2%.

Total crypto liquidations reached $435 million over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass, with more than 108,000 traders liquidated.

Stalled Peace Talks

President Donald Trump on Sunday called off a planned Pakistan trip by two senior U.S. negotiators, stalling a fresh round of peace talks even as Iran reportedly sent Washington a new proposal over the weekend. The Strait of Hormuz remains under a U.S. naval blockade.

The risk-off backdrop is unfolding two days before the April 28-29 FOMC meeting. CME FedWatch puts the odds of a rate hold at 100%, with the federal funds rate expected to remain in the 3.50-3.75% range. April carries no fresh dot plot or Summary of Economic Projections, leaving Chair Jerome Powell’s tone the focal point for traders. The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases its advance Q1 GDP estimate on Thursday, with PCE and the Employment Cost Index expected the same morning.

ETFs

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $823.7 million in net inflows during the week ending April 24, the fourth consecutive positive week, per SoSoValue. April month-to-date inflows now exceed $2.4 billion, nearly double March’s total. Total BTC ETF AUM stood at $102.64 billion as of Friday, with the products holding 1,322,094 BTC, or roughly 6.3% of the circulating supply.

Spot Ether ETFs added $155 million for the week, their third consecutive positive week, while spot Solana ETFs added $9.4 million and spot XRP ETFs added $15.7 million.

Elsewhere

Strategy disclosed its fourth consecutive weekly Bitcoin purchase, adding 3,273 BTC for $255 million at an average price of $77,906, with the latest fill now sitting roughly 1.4% above spot. Total holdings stand at 818,334 BTC, acquired for roughly $61.81 billion at an average cost basis of $75,537, with chairman Michael Saylor citing a 9.6% year-to-date BTC yield. The buy follows last week’s $2.54 billion accumulation of 34,164 BTC, the firm’s largest since 2024.

In DeFi, Aave founder Stani Kulechov said the DeFi United recovery fund has reached the level needed to fully re-collateralize rsETH following the April 18 KelpDAO bridge exploit, subject to pending governance votes. Consensys and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin committed up to 30,000 ETH, while the Solana Foundation said it would lend USDT on Aave for the first time.

Outlook

With oil at multi-week highs, and four mega-cap tech names (Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon) reporting Wednesday evening after the FOMC decision, the path of least resistance for crypto this week runs through the macro tape rather than crypto-native catalysts.