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Bitcoin rises as Trump says U.S. in talks with ‘new regime’ in Iran, threatens oil infrastructure if deal fails

Trump said "great progress" had been made toward ending the war, but warned the U.S. would "obliterate" Iran's power plants, oil wells and Kharg Island if a deal isn't reached shortly.

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Bitcoin rises as Trump says U.S. in talks with ‘new regime’ in Iran, threatens oil infrastructure if deal fails

Trump said “great progress” had been made toward ending the war, but warned the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants, oil wells and Kharg Island if a deal isn’t reached shortly.

By Shaurya Malwa|Edited by Sheldon Reback

Updated Mar 30, 2026, 12:00 p.m. Published Mar 30, 2026, 11:46 a.m.

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What to know:

• President Donald Trump the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with a “new, and more reasonable, regime” in Iran to end military operations, signaling a possible change of government in Tehran.
• In a post on Truth Social, Trump also demanded the Strait of Hormuz be “immediately” reopened and threatened to destroy key Iranian energy and civilian infrastructure, including power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island and potentially desalination facilities, if talks fail.
• Cryptocurrencies rose further on the news. Bitcoin, ether, solana and XRP have all gained in the past 24 hours amid a wave of short liquidations totaling about $340 million.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “in serious discussions with a new, and more reasonable, regime” to end military operations in Iran, the first public acknowledgment of a regime change in Tehran since the conflict began five weeks ago.

Using the phrase “new regime” his post on Truth Social suggests the talks involve a leadership structure that was not in place when the war started at the end of February.

In the same post, Trump demanded the Strait of Hormuz be “immediately open for business” and threatened to “blow up and completely obliterate” Iran’s electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island if a deal is not reached shortly. He added that desalination plants were also under consideration.

These are all targets the U.S. deliberately avoided hitting for the duration of the five-week conflict, he said.

The combination of a potential ceasefire with a new government and the most explicit threat to civilian and energy infrastructure yet makes this a two-sided headline that the market will struggle to price cleanly.

One the one hand, talks are taking place with a new regime and “great progress” has been made. On the other, the president just publicly listed every piece of critical infrastructure he’s prepared to destroy if those talks fail while saying such action would “conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran.”

Bitcoin jumped above $67,600 on the news, taking its 24-hour gain to 1.3%. Ether (ETH) outperformed, up 3.1% to $2,070, solana (SOL) rose 1.9% to $84.09 and XRP added 1.0% to $1.35. The weekly picture is still uniformly red — with BTC down 1.3%, XRP 1.2%, SOL 2.2%. Tron continues to outperform, up 1.3% in 24 hours and 5.3% on the week.

The bounce squeezed a lot of shorts on the way up. CoinGlass data shows $9.32 million in short liquidations in the last hour alone against just $207,000 in longs.

Traders took on $340 million in liquidations over a 24-hour window, absorbing the bulk at $242.25 million from the overnight flush before the Trump post landed. The largest single order was a $9.8 million BTCUSD liquidation on Bybit.