Oil futures up 7% on Hyperliquid as Trump orders Naval blockade of Hormuz
Oil prices spiked on the Hyperliquid platform after President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz
Updated Apr 12, 2026, 2:30 p.m. Published Apr 12, 2026, 2:16 p.m.
What to know:
- Oil prices spiked on the Hyperliquid platform after President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz following failed nuclear talks with Iran.
- WTI and Brent crude futures jumped about 7 percent and 6 percent, respectively, with WTI trading volume on Hyperliquid reaching $1.53 billion, underscoring growing use of decentralized platforms for price discovery when traditional markets are shut.
- The blockade threatens to turn an already tight market into an unprecedented supply shock as coordinated emergency stockpile releases near their limits, raising the risk of higher inflation, broader market volatility and pressure on risk assets such as Bitcoin.
Oil futures surged on Hyperliquid after President Donald Trump ordered a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a major global supply chokepoint. 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 oil jumped to $96.40, up 7% on the day, extending early gains. Brent futures rose 6% to $96.
Notably, WTI futures registered $1.53 billion in trading volume, making it the third-most-traded instrument on the platform behind BTC and ETH. The data highlights growing investor preference for price discovery on decentralized blockchain platforms, especially when traditional markets are closed.
This blockade news couldn’t have come at a worse time, as mid-April marks a critical period for the oil market, when the large-scale drawdown of strategic petroleum reserves coordinated by the International Energy Agency begins to approach its limit.
Those emergency releases, initiated after the war broke out on Feb. 28, have been offsetting a supply shortfall of roughly 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 roughly 10 to 11 million barrels per day if normal supply is not restored.
If this scenario materializes, it would amount to “a supply shock without precedent in the modern oil market,” the House of Saud recently said. The IEA’s Chief, Fatih Birol, warned last week that the oil supply shock could be worse in April than in March.
The impact on markets would likely be immediate, with oil benchmarks gapping higher on Monday amid tighter supply expectations, equities facing renewed risk-off pressure amid inflation concerns, and volatility rising across both traditional and crypto markets as traders reassess global growth assumptions.
Bitcoin, which is considered a leading indicator for risk assets by some traders, is already under pressure. As of writing, it changed hands near $71,000, down nearly 3% on the day, according to CoinDesk data.
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Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at Fidelity Investments, says strong earnings are helping markets absorb geopolitical shocks, despite ongoing risks.
What to know:
- Oil backwardation, stable credit spreads, and modest equity drawdowns suggest investors expect tensions around Iran to resolve.
- Bitcoin, in particular looks technically interesting to Timmer, with the $65,000 level acting as solid support.
- Strong earnings and a mid-cycle expansion are preventing a deeper equity selloff, even amid geopolitical uncertainty, the…
