Iran: Unilateral Restoration of Hormuz Strait Traffic Currently Infeasible

On April 20th, GMGN monitoring data shows the Ethereum-based meme coin ASTEROID surged 16% in one hour, pushing its market cap above $150 million—currently at $158 million—with a price of $0.000375 and 24-hour trading volume of $49.6 million. The ASTEROID meme coin’s origin story ties to Liv Perrotto, a 15-year-old girl whose biggest lifetime wish was to meet Elon Musk. She helped design a Shiba Inu-shaped plushie named “Asteroid.” After her passing, her mother publicly wrote to Musk, and the story gained wider attention when prominent media personality Glenn Beck featured it on his show. On April 19th, Musk agreed to make Asteroid the mascot of SpaceX. BlockBeats reminds users that meme coin trading is highly volatile, often driven by market sentiment and hype, with no inherent value or practical use case. Investors should be aware of the associated risks.

April 20th: Japanese yen stablecoin issuer JPYC has completed an additional ￥2.8 billion (≈$18.66 million) in the second tranche of its Series B funding. Combined with the first tranche, total Series B fundraising is expected to hit around ￥4.6 billion. Backers in this round include Metaplanet, NCB Venture Capital, Techmira Holdings, Canal Ventures, SUMISEI Innovation Fund, i-nest capital, NTVP, Hokuriku Bank, and Yokohama Capital, among others. Metaplanet previously disclosed plans to invest up to ￥400 million in JPYC. The funds will go primarily to four key areas: system and app development, hiring business development talent, stablecoin issuance/settlement-related operations, and potential strategic investment opportunities. From a business standpoint, JPYC has seen strong growth. As of mid-April 2026, its total circulation has topped ￥21 billion—up nearly 2.6x in the past three months—with a daily trading turnover rate of over 100%. Currently, there are ~17,000 accounts, b

April 20 — Per HyperInsight Monitoring data, an address starting with 0xec4 has opened simultaneous BTC and ETH short positions in the past hour, totaling roughly $12.5 million. Position details: - 40x BTC Short: 100 coins (~$7.96M), average entry price $74,677/coin; - 25x ETH Short: 2,000 coins (~$4.6M), average entry price $2,292/coin. The combined unrealized loss across both positions is approximately $75,000. Address: 0xec4a6f59960fb59960fb55a7fa49262e2628687b322cf62

April 20 — A Pakistani official told Nikkei Asia that Pakistan still expects an Iranian delegation to arrive in Islamabad on Tuesday, despite earlier Iranian signals that Tehran had no plans to send a negotiating team as long as the U.S. maintains its blockade of Iranian ports.

**April 20** — The U.S. will officially roll out its tariff refund program today, with total potential refunds topping roughly $166 billion. The program stems from a prior court ruling that found some tariff collections were unauthorized by law. Eligible companies can apply to recover paid tariffs; funds are expected to arrive 60–90 days after approval. The initiative targets importers and their agents primarily, with the initial phase covering only certain eligible tariff orders — including those not yet finalized or within 80 days post-reconciliation. U.S. Customs data shows more than 56,000 companies have already registered, accounting for roughly $127 billion in potential refunds. Market watchers widely expect the move to ease businesses’ cash flow pressure significantly. But since most prior tariff costs were passed to consumers via price hikes, and the policy does not require companies to pass refunds to end-users, actual benefits will remain concentrated on the business si

April 20 — The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is unlikely to raise interest rates next week, according to five sources familiar with the central bank’s internal thinking. Fading hopes for a quick resolution to the Middle East conflict have left Japan’s economic and price outlook mired in uncertainty. While the final decision remains uncertain and hinges on progress in U.S.-Iran peace talks, the sources note the BOJ is inclined to maintain its current policy this month to allow more time to assess the conflict’s impact. “Given the current level of uncertainty, holding steady this month makes sense,” one source said. Another source echoed the view. A third added the BOJ is unlikely to hike rates because markets have fully priced in a no-hike outcome for this month. Even if rates stay unchanged next week, escalating inflation pressures mean the central bank may signal readiness to raise rates as early as June. (Kyodo)