Trump: 95% of the people in the Iran delegation want to have nuclear weapons, but this is not possible

On April 12, per Iran's Tasnim News Agency, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call that day that Iran is fully ready to strike an agreement ensuring long-term regional peace and security—one that is balanced and fair.

Per monitoring from PolyBeats, oil price expectations have risen again following a threat from Trump that the U.S. Navy will block the Strait of Hormuz and intercept all vessels paying passage fees to Iran. On the prediction market Polymarket, it is now a high-probability event that WTI Crude Oil’s single-day closing price this month will exceed $115 per barrel—currently at 57%. The odds of topping $120 are 40%, $130 are 23%, and $150 are 8%. Additionally, Bitget market data shows WTI Crude Oil closed at $95.74 per barrel on the previous trading day.

April 12 — Digital asset financial services firm Tok-Edge has announced the launch of a crypto hedge fund for institutional investors, targeting $100 million in its first funding round by 2026. The fund’s long-term goal is to build a compliant, institutional-grade crypto asset allocation infrastructure, starting with an initial size of $21 million. Marcus Meijer, a veteran traditional finance investor, and his investment consortium are backers of the fund; the consortium plans to contribute $10 million as a cornerstone investor.

On April 12, local time, Iran stated that two U.S. Navy ships—the USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy—had attempted to "penetrate" the Strait of Hormuz the previous day. The U.S. vessels exploited ceasefire conditions in an apparent bid to fabricate claims of a "successful transit" and influence ongoing U.S.-Iran negotiations, according to Iran. Iran further alleged the destroyers tried to impersonate Omani commercial vessels operating along the southern Arabian Sea coast. They chose a high-risk route extremely close to the shore in shallow waters, hoping to enter the Persian Gulf via "covert maneuvers" and leveraging what it claimed was Iranian military "negligence" during the ceasefire. Iran’s navy intercepted the ships at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Unable to enter the Strait of Hormuz, the two destroyers were forced to retreat to the Arabian Sea. (Source: CCTV News)

April 12 announcement: Donald Trump will be interviewed in the White House Oval Office Wednesday 6-8 p.m. Eastern Time (6-8 a.m. Beijing Time Thursday) to address economic issues.

On April 12th, in an interview with FOX News, Trump stated: “The most surprising thing to me is that Japan gets 93% of its oil from the Middle East, and both Japan and South Korea depend on that region for 45% of their employment. These countries have never helped us. I asked, ‘Are you going to help?’ We have 45,000 troops in one and 50,000 in the other of those two nations—we’re protecting them. When we ask for even a little help, they don’t step up. NATO doesn’t either; we’ve spent nearly $1 trillion on NATO in a very short time. Oil prices will eventually fall—they might not right away, but they will by the end of this. Look at the stock market: the Dow hit 50,000. It was supposed to take four or five years, but it got there in my first year in office. Frankly, gasoline prices haven’t risen as much as I expected. But even if they did, we have to stop these countries from getting nuclear weapons again.”