Citi Raises Oil Price Forecast Amid Iran Conflict Background

On April 5, U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham posted on social media: "Just had a great chat with President Trump. I fully back his ultimatum to the Iranian regime—demand they open the Strait of Hormuz and strike a peace deal. If Iran makes the wrong call, they’ll face a large-scale military operation. That regime’s already taken a huge hit from U.S. military actions."

On April 4, Jack Dorsey—Twitter co-founder and leading Bitcoin initiatives at Block—will launch a Bitcoin faucet, marking the first such faucet in 16 years. Dorsey unveiled the faucet’s website, "btc.day," on X. Reports state the total distribution pool will be roughly $1 million in BTC (about 15 BTC), funded by Block’s Bitcoin treasury.

On April 4th, Michael Saylor tweeted: “Bitcoin has won. There’s global consensus that BTC is digital capital. Its four-year cycle has ended—price is now driven by capital flows. Banks and digital credit will shape Bitcoin’s growth trajectory. The biggest risk? A bad idea leading to a protocol change by fiat.”

April 4 — The niece and grandniece of the late Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, were arrested by U.S. federal agents in the U.S. on Friday, the U.S. State Department announced. (Gold10)

On Saturday, April 4, Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the U.S. is "getting rid of the Iran nuclear issue" while emphasizing strong domestic economic data. He noted the latest figures show the U.S. added 178,000 new jobs, the trade deficit has dropped by 55% (dubbing the decline "the largest drop ever"), and credited tariffs for these outcomes.

On April 4, F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun said in an X post that Bitcoin protocol upgrades should not adopt a "riders bill" approach—similar to how U.S. politicians push through "must-pass but unpopular provisions." This is also a key reason he opposes BIP-110 and BIP-54. Responding to whether fixes using BIP-54 have issues, Wang further noted the "Timewarp" problem has existed for years and offers no significant benefit to miners, since they can’t predict who will mine the next block. Its only practical use is disrupting some altcoins, which provides almost no real value to Bitcoin miners—so there’s no urgent need to modify it. Additionally, libsecp256k1 and hardware upgrades have drastically improved block validation efficiency, making protocol-level changes unnecessary. "Fake confirmed transactions" fundamentally depend on breaking a double SHA256 collision; if that were possible, it would mean Bitcoin Core’s security has been compromised. Wang added these issues aren’t enough to d