U.S. Official: U.S. to Let Iran Oil Sanctions Waivers Expire This Week

As of April 15, CME's FedWatch Tool shows the probability of a 25bp rate hike at the Fed’s April meeting stands at 0.5%, while the likelihood of rates remaining unchanged is 99.5%.

CNN Reports: On April 15th, U.S. officials said the Navy is not currently escorting any ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but has notified commercial vessels (excluding those calling at or departing Iranian ports) that the waterway is safe for transit and encouraged them to proceed. The U.S. has not imposed a full blockade on the strait—only on vessels entering or exiting Iranian ports along Iran’s entire coastline.

April 15 (Bloomberg) — The Carlyle Group has raised $1.5 billion in the first close of its newly launched asset-backed investment fund, as the private equity giant continues to expand its credit business footprint. People familiar with the matter said pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors participated in the Carlyle Asset-Backed Income Fund. Unlike most fixed-term credit funds, the fund will adopt a “perpetual” structure with no set maturity date. The individuals requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information.

As of April 15, HyperInsight monitoring shows Binance whale address **pension-usdt.eth** still holds 3x-leveraged short positions: - 1,000 BTC (average entry price: $67,992.1) - 20,000 ETH (average entry price: $2,131.94) Total unrealized loss: $12.203 million. (Note: HyperInsight’s Telegram handle is @HyperInsight, per original link.)

April 15 — At least nine commercial vessels have transited the Strait of Hormuz since yesterday, CNN reports, citing data from Kpler, a data intelligence and analytics platform.

**April 15 Update** Per Coinglass data, as Bitcoin surged above $76,000, funding rates across major centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) exchanges now show the market edging back to neutral. Specific funding rates are outlined in the chart below. **BlockBeats Note** A funding rate is a fee set by crypto exchanges to keep perpetual contract prices aligned with their underlying assets. It functions as a fund transfer between long and short traders—exchanges do not collect this fee themselves. The rate adjusts the cost or profit for traders holding positions, ensuring contract prices stay close to underlying asset values. - A 0.01% rate is the baseline. - Rates above 0.01% indicate a broadly bullish market. - Rates below 0.005% indicate a broadly bearish market.