Bitcoin Below $73K as Iran Peace Draft Eyed, PCE Hits 3.8%, Sequans Exits BTC Treasury

Bitcoin News

Bitcoin slipped below the $73,000 mark on Wednesday despite headlines pointing to a potential breakthrough between Washington and Tehran. A draft 60-day memorandum of understanding circulated among negotiators, designed to extend the existing ceasefire and open a path toward talks on Iran's nuclear program, though President Donald Trump has yet to sign off. Equities, Treasuries, and crude all responded to the report, but Bitcoin failed to keep even a modest bid, drifting roughly 2.7% lower over 24 hours. Risk traders treated the cooling geopolitical premium as a reason to lighten crypto exposure rather than chase upside.

The same headline that pinned BTC also drove a rotation across traditional markets. The Nasdaq flipped from red to a 0.6% gain, while WTI crude tumbled below $90 a barrel as traders interpreted the draft accord as a step away from oil-supply disruption. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reinforced the geopolitical stance, warning that the United States would not tolerate any attempt to impose tolls on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. He pledged aggressive sanctions against any party — Oman included — facilitating disruption to commercial transit. The mixed posture left risk assets bid while the crypto complex stayed firmly under pressure.

Compounding the negative tone for risk, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge printed at its hottest reading in nearly three years. The Personal Consumption Expenditure Index climbed to 3.8% year over year in April, up from 2.8% in February and marking the first reading under new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh. Core measures also moved in the wrong direction, signaling that price pressures are broadening rather than fading. Analysts said the central bank is caught between an inflation impulse it cannot easily address and a supply shock it cannot ignore, narrowing the runway for any near-term policy easing that crypto bulls had been counting on.

Corporate Bitcoin treasuries continued to thin out, with semiconductor firm Sequans Communications confirming the full redemption of debt linked to its Bitcoin treasury program. The Paris-based IoT chip company funded the buyback by liquidating roughly 80% of its BTC stack, leaving 658 coins on the balance sheet, all now unencumbered by convertible obligations. Sequans launched the strategy in mid-2025 with ambitions to accumulate 3,000 BTC, briefly crossing that threshold before reversing course as prices collapsed from a $126,000 all-time high toward $80,000. The company now intends to monetize the remaining stack over time and refocus on its core cellular semiconductor business.

Spot ETF flows continued to underscore the institutional retreat. Analysts at JPMorgan led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou reported that both Bitcoin and gold exchange-traded products have seen sustained outflows over the past two weeks, with BTC vehicles bleeding more aggressively. BlackRock's IBIT logged a $527.8 million outflow on Wednesday — its second-largest single-day redemption since launch — contributing to a combined $733.4 million drain across U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, the heaviest one-day exit since late January. The pattern looks less like a rotation from BTC into bullion and more like a broad-based unwinding of the so-called debasement hedge.

The cooling extends beyond cash markets. JPMorgan's momentum-signal framework flagged weakening positioning from commodity trading advisors and other trend-followers in both Bitcoin and gold futures, with CME open interest in BTC contracts retreating over the same two-week window. Panigirtzoglou's team argued that Bitcoin had become the dominant expression of the debasement trade since the Iran conflict began, which is why it is now seeing the sharpest reversal as expectations of a diplomatic off-ramp build. Hedge funds and CTAs that previously bid digital assets as a macro hedge are paring exposure rather than rotating, leaving spot BTC vulnerable to further mechanical de-risking.

At $73,895, BTC sits roughly mid-channel between immediate candlestick support at $72,624 and resistance at $74,495. RSI near 36.8 is sliding toward the oversold zone, while a bearish MACD print and the prevailing downtrend warn that any bounce must clear $74,495 to neutralize sellers and reopen $75,717. A breakdown of $72,624 would expose the heavier $70,280 shelf and the structural $66,863 floor, the latter aligning with prior bear market liquidity. The bullish thesis requires a swift reclaim above $75,716 with momentum confirmation; failure to defend $72,624 invalidates near-term recovery and tilts the tape toward a deeper retest.