Oil futures rose on Hyperliquid after President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a major global supply shutdown. The move came after Iran refused to give up its nuclear ambitions during peace talks in Islamabad earlier in the day.
Perpetual futures tied to WTI crude jumped to $96.40, up 7% on the day, extending early gains. Brent futures rose 6% to $96.
Notably, WTI futures recorded $1.53 billion in trading volume, making it the third most traded instrument on the platform behind BTC and ETH. The data highlights the growing investor preference for price discovery on decentralized blockchain platforms, especially when traditional markets are closed.
This blockade news could not have come at a worse time, as mid-April marks a critical period for the oil market, when the large-scale extraction of strategic oil reserves coordinated by the International Energy Agency begins to approach its limit.
These emergency releases, initiated after the outbreak of war on February 28, have offset a supply shortfall of around 4.5 to 5 million barrels per day caused by disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz, but as these buffers run down in the coming weeks, that gap risks widening sharply to around 10 to 11 million barrels if normal supply is not dormant.
If this scenario materializes, it will amount to “an unprecedented supply shock in the modern oil market,” the House of Saud said recently. IEA chief Fatih Birol warned last week that the oil supply shock could be worse in April than in March.
The impact on markets is likely to be immediate, with oil benchmarks gapping higher on Monday amid tighter supply expectations, stocks facing renewed risk pressure on inflation worries and volatility rising across both traditional and crypto markets as traders reassess global growth assumptions.
Bitcoin, which is considered a leading indicator of risk assets by some traders, is already under pressure. At the time of writing, it was changing hands near $71,000, down nearly 3% on the day, according to CoinDesk data.
