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 comes after Iran refused to give up its nuclear ambitions during peace talks in Islamabad earlier today.
Perpetual futures contracts 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 recorded a trading volume of $1.53 billion, making it the third most traded instrument on the platform behind BTC and ETH. The data highlights investors’ growing preference for price discovery on decentralized blockchain platforms, particularly 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 drawdown 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, compensated for a supply gap of around 4.5 to 5 million barrels per day caused by the disruption of flows through the Strait of Hormuz, but as these reserves are depleted in the coming weeks, this gap is likely to widen sharply to around 10 to 11 million barrels per day if normal supplies are not restored.
If this scenario materializes, it would 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 would likely be immediate, with oil benchmarks rising Monday amid tighter supply expectations, stocks facing renewed risk aversion pressure from inflationary concerns and increasing volatility in traditional and crypto markets as traders reassess global growth assumptions.
Bitcoin, seen by some traders as a leading indicator of risk assets, is already under pressure. At the time of writing, it changed hands at nearly $71,000, down almost 3% on the day, according to CoinDesk data.
