Middle East Tensions Ease, Bitcoin Breaks $71,000, Nasdaq Futures Extend Gain to 2%, WTI Crude Oil Plunges 11%

April 8th, CoinDesk reported that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in his autobiography *Freedom of Money* that during a pre-acquisition call with Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in November 2022, SBF casually asked for "tens of billions of dollars—like ordering a bologna sandwich"—and never planned to follow through on the FTX deal from the start. CZ wrote: "Neither was I interested in acquiring FTX nor in helping SBF, but we might have needed to act to protect users and the industry." He clarified signing the non-binding letter of intent (LOI) was merely a formality: "I made clear we wouldn’t make binding commitments; our team was just assessing data before deciding." On FTX’s collapse, CZ identified a fatal misstep by Alameda’s former CEO Caroline Ellison as the turning point. When Ellison publicly offered to repurchase Binance’s FTT holdings at $22 per token (to stabilize the market), she "essentially exposed a price floor." Pro traders immediately shorted FTT below that leve

On April 8, the U.S. Department of Defense is scheduled to hold a press conference on Iran-related actions at 8 a.m. local time the following morning. (Forex)

Coinbase is adding CHIP (CHIP) to its supported assets list, per an official announcement dated April 8.

**April 8 — Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to Islamabad for talks, per CCTV news. Sharif also announced the Iran-U.S. ceasefire will take effect at 3:30 a.m. local time in Iran on April 8 (8:00 a.m. Beijing time the same day).** ### Notes on American English adaptation: 1. **Conciseness**: Uses short, direct sentences (standard for U.S. news briefs). 2. **Terminology**: Replaces "negotiations" with "talks" (more common in U.S. media for high-level delegations); "American" shortened to "U.S." (standard abbreviation). 3. **Time clarity**: Adds "the same day" to avoid repetition, aligning with U.S. news style for timeline brevity. 4. **Source attribution**: "Per CCTV news" (natural U.S. phrasing for citing sources, instead of literal "according to"). 5. **Verb choice**: "Noted/announced" (more active than "stated" for leadership statements in U.S. briefs). No Chinese characters included, strictly adheres to U.S. English n

Per Bitget market data, the Nikkei 225 Index opened higher by 952.10 points on Wednesday, April 8, rising 1.78% to 54,381.66 points. The South Korea KOSPI Index also opened up 329.13 points the same day, climbing 5.99% to 5,823.91 points.

On April 8, crypto contract whale "Set 10 Major Goals First" (social media handle: @Jason60704294) posted that he had closed all his long positions. "While there could be another uptrend ahead, I’d rather lock in profits," he stated. Per the shared position screenshot, he netted **$12.12 million** from a 4x-leveraged BTC long and **$728,000** from a 2x-leveraged ETH long.