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Bitcoin Surges Toward $70,000
11:10 am — BTC +0.9%
Bitcoin (BTC +3.52%) climbed 4% Monday, nearing the $70,000 threshold as geopolitical tensions eased. Reports of potential ceasefire negotiations involving U.S. and Iranian mediators boosted risk appetite across the digital asset space, lifting Ethereum (ETH +5.36%) and Solana (SOL +2.77%) in tandem. Institutional stability remains a cornerstone of the current rally, with spot ETFs and treasury holders now controlling 12% of total supply. Amid this optimism, MicroStrategy (MSTR +5.93%) doubled down on its aggressive treasury strategy, revealing it purchased another $330 million worth of tokens early this month.
- Saylor’s Unshakable Conviction: MicroStrategy’s latest nine-figure acquisition cements its lead as the largest corporate holder while the token trades within its tight five-week range.
- The Geopolitical Catalyst: Analysts suggest a formal 45-day truce could provide the necessary momentum to finally propel Bitcoin past its stubborn $73,000 resistance level.
Today’s Change
(3.52%) $2366.23
Current Price
$69610.00
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$1.4T
Day’s Range
$67198.00 – $70243.00
52wk Range
$60255.56 – $126079.89
Volume
44B
Top of the Morning
11:15 am
By Morning Show host Loren Horst
Team Rule Breakers
One of the hallmarks of March Madness is the relentless promotion of Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ +0.16%), the innovation-themed ETF tracking the Nasdaq 100 and the official ETF of the NCAA. While the timing is presumably in part due to the closing window in which investors can make IRA contributions for last year, the marketing has always paralleled the up-and-comers cementing their legacies in the college basketball tournaments with tomorrow’s big winners reshaping the landscape of their industries and the stock market.
And to now, Invesco (IVZ 5.92%) has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on tracking that major index for U.S. investors. We’re not talking 80% or 90% — according to ETF Database, QQQ and its more buy-and-hold “mini” version, Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF (QQQM +0.43%), control nearly 99.5% of all U.S. dollar assets tracking the large-cap index. This places what everyone commonly knows as QQQ as the fifth-largest exchange traded fund by assets under management (or ETF by AUM), trailing three S&P 500 funds and one total stock market ETF.
But according to a filing from earlier today, BlackRock will be joining its own big dance shortly with an offering of its own: the iShares Nasdaq 100 ETF, to be traded under ticker IQQ. This would be the first ETF from an asset manager other than Invesco to purely track the index (a handful of others add derivatives).
10:05 am
By Morning Show host Jim Gillies
I like a good annual letter out of a company. The problem is, most companies don’t really give you more than “Rah-Rah!” platitudes in their annual communiques, if they give one at all. I want talk of the business, the problems they’ve been facing, the mistakes made – real communication, in other words.
The gold standard for many years was, of course, the annual letter penned by Berkshire Hathaway‘s (BRKB +0.10%) Warren Buffett, but there are others worth mentioning – from Fairfax Financial (FFH +0.89%), to Nelnet (NNI +1.10%), to Brookfield (BN 0.26%)(BN 0.76%) to or even tiny (I doubt anyone outside of Fool Canada has heard of them) Decisive Dividend (DE +2.23%).
To this, add JP Morgan (JPM +0.91%) CEO Jamie Dimon’s annual letter, even though I don’t read it because I’m particularly interested in the stock of bank he heads up. Rather, I like to get his insights into the state of the world and a more “macro” viewpoint.
9:35 am
By Morning Show host Nick Sciple
Team Rule Breakers
It’s starting to feel like Groundhog Day. Five weeks after the first U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed. Oil continues to surge well above $100 per barrel. And President Trump is still dishing out ultimatums, claiming the war will be over soon. He said “very shortly” on April 1. He said “very soon” on March 9. The talking points haven’t changed. The strait hasn’t opened. Physical barrels of Dated Brent touched $141 on April 2, the highest since 2008.
Opening Bell
9:30 am
The S&P 500 remained nearly flat Monday as investors weighed competing reports of a potential 45-day ceasefire against a Tuesday night deadline set by President Trump. While Pakistan-brokered terms for an immediate end to hostilities have reached both sides, Trump warned on Truth Social that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day” in Iran if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. West Texas Intermediate crude eased to $110 per barrel as traders balanced these peace hopes with the threat of escalated strikes. This session also marks the first opportunity for the Nasdaq to react to Friday’s blowout jobs report, which showed 178,000 positions added, nearly triple the consensus.
JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. This article was created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool’s insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. Jim Gillies has positions in Berkshire Hathaway, Brookfield, Decisive Dividend, and Nelnet. Loren Horst has positions in Berkshire Hathaway. Nicholas Sciple has positions in Nelnet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Bitcoin, Brookfield, Brookfield Corporation, Decisive Dividend, Ethereum, Fairfax Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Nelnet, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
