Key Points:
- Bitcoin rose 0.5% to cross $80,262.3, securing a sixth straight week of gains despite global tensions.
- U.S. employers added 115,000 jobs in April, beating estimates and keeping the unemployment rate at 4.3%.
- The U.S. military disabled three Iranian oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz as trade blockades continue.
- The U.S. Treasury demanded that Binance explain reports of $1 billion moving to Iran-linked groups in recent years.
Bitcoin barely moved on Friday as traders weighed a surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report against fresh military clashes in the Middle East. The top cryptocurrency edged up 0.5% to reach $80,262.3 in late afternoon trading. This small bump kept Bitcoin right on track for a 2% weekly gain, marking its sixth consecutive week of steady growth. Big institutional buyers and eager bargain hunters continued to fuel this long rally, while lawmakers finally made some progress on drafting a new crypto rulebook in Washington.
However, some corporate news held Bitcoin back from making a much bigger jump. Strategy, a major corporate holder of the digital coin, announced it might sell a portion of its massive stash to pay out dividends to its shareholders. The company did not share specific details about exactly how much digital currency it plans to sell or when those sales will actually happen. This lingering uncertainty kept many active day traders cautious ahead of the weekend.
On the economic front, U.S. employers surprised Wall Street forecasters in April. Companies added a solid 115,000 new jobs over the course of the month. While this number fell noticeably from the massive 185,000 jobs created in March, it easily beat the modest 55,000 job gains that economists had originally expected. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%, indicating remarkable stability in the labor market despite broader economic pressures.
Despite the strong hiring numbers, workers saw their paychecks grow a bit slower than anticipated. Average hourly pay increased by only 0.2% for the month and 3.6% compared to the same time last year. Both of these final numbers landed directly below the expected monthly 0.3% and yearly 3.8% targets. This solid job growth, mixed with slower wage increases, paints a highly complex picture of the broader American economy right now.
These mixed economic signals put the Federal Reserve in an incredibly tough spot. Last week, central bank officials voted 8 to 4 to keep the main interest rate unchanged. This specific meeting saw the most internal disagreement among board members since 1992. Now, financial markets expect zero interest rate changes for the rest of the year. The central bank is also undergoing a massive leadership transition as Kevin Warsh awaits Senate confirmation as the next official chairman.
Outside the United States, fierce military clashes in the Middle East grabbed the global market’s full attention. Iran effectively closed the critical Strait of Hormuz in late February, causing the biggest oil and gas supply shock in modern history. The U.S. military responded aggressively in mid-April by placing a strict naval blockade on all Iranian coastal ports to squeeze Tehran financially and protect international shipping lanes.
The actual fighting on the water escalated significantly this week. U.S. Central Command announced on Friday that American forces fired on and disabled two empty Iranian oil tankers attempting to reach the Gulf of Oman. Just two days earlier, forces disabled another empty tanker in the same volatile region. The U.S. military also stopped dangerous Iranian attacks aimed at three American warships sailing near the narrow strait. In direct response to those attacks, American fighter jets struck specific military targets at Iran’s Qeshm port and the nearby city of Bandar Abbas.
Despite the active shooting, President Donald Trump insisted the official ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran remained fully intact. Speaking to reporters, Trump called the latest maritime attacks a mere love tap rather than an act of major war. He quickly took to social media to warn Iranian leaders to sign a new 14-point peace proposal incredibly fast. He promised much harder and significantly more violent military strikes if they refused the pending diplomatic deal.
Back in the digital currency world, Binance faces fresh trouble from the American government. The U.S. Treasury sent a stern letter ordering the world’s largest crypto exchange to comply with the monitoring program it originally agreed to in 2023. Officials sent this intense demand after recent financial reports showed that more than $1 billion worth of digital money mysteriously flowed through Binance to various Iran-linked groups across 2024 and 2025.
Despite the heavy government scrutiny over potential sanctions violations, Binance’s own native token largely ignored the bad news. The BNB coin rose 0.6% during Friday’s trading sessions. Other major digital currencies closely followed Bitcoin’s slow and steady lead, with slight upward bumps to close out the workweek.
Ether, the second-largest digital coin on the market, climbed 0.8% to hit a price of $2,306.78. Meanwhile, XRP jumped 2.1% to $1.4134. Competing blockchain networks Solana and Cardano enjoyed much bigger leaps, jumping 4.7% and 3.8% respectively. Popular internet meme coins also joined the green wave, with Dogecoin up 0.9% and the political $TRUMP token climbing exactly 4%.
