Iranian Ministry of Defense: Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz Is Conditional

On April 18, per Farside Investors data, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a combined net inflow of $663.9 million yesterday. Breakdown: IBIT ($284M), FBTC ($163.4M), ARKB ($117.9M). Ethereum ETFs posted a net inflow of $127.4 million yesterday—marking their 7th straight day of positive flows—with ETHA taking in $30.8 million and FETH $84.1 million.

April 18: Reports emerged that President Trump was asked aboard Air Force One about claims the Pentagon is preparing military action in Cuba. "Are these true? Is Cuba next?" he was queried. Trump neither confirmed nor denied the reports, responding: "That depends on what you mean by 'military action'."

On April 18th, the Zcash Foundation announced via Twitter that it has released Zebra 4.3.1. The update includes multiple critical security fixes, and all node operators are urged to upgrade immediately. Additionally, the release adds a Dockerized mining environment, automated checkpoint management, and several CI enhancements.

**April 18 Market News** — U.S. President Trump said ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz don’t need to pay fees. ### Notes on American English adaptation: 1. **Date brevity**: Omitted "th" (common in U.S. casual/news writing for dates like "April 18" instead of "April 18th"). 2. **Terminology**: Used "transiting" (standard maritime/trade jargon for ships moving through waterways, more natural than "passing through" in market news). 3. **Conciseness**: Simplified "do not need to pay any fees" to "don’t need to pay fees" (casual, efficient for quick updates). 4. **Punctuation**: Used an em dash (`—`) to separate the headline/date from the core claim (common in U.S. news briefs).

April 18: Suez Canal “reopened”; Nasdaq notches 13th straight gain, hits new high; U.S. oil plummets; gold, silver surge. Looking ahead, Matt Powers—Managing Partner at Powers Advisory Group—notes the market may have reached a short-term bottom, but the broader trend still hinges heavily on external factors. Powers warns the current market remains a classic “headline-driven market”: oil price trends, the Fed’s policy pace, and geopolitical shifts could quickly shift sentiment. Powers adds the U.S. stock market’s rapid recovery signals its underlying trend is solid, “reflecting significant resilience to pressure.” He stresses more sectors and individual stocks need to join the rally to boost market breadth, while corporate earnings will be a key support. UBS strategists also say the U.S. stock market has room to rise over the next year, driven by strong corporate profit growth and a stable U.S. economy. (The Paper)

**April 18** U.S. financial blog ZeroHedge said in an X post Wednesday that despite recent "open" or ceasefire declarations regarding the Strait of Hormuz, new satellite imagery shows two oil tankers—the *Minerva Evropi* and *Nissos Keros*—that were on a neutral route have turned around. Meanwhile, the *Sanmar Herald* continues to follow the Iran-approved route near Larak Island, signaling actual maritime traffic remains risk-constrained.