Investing.com-- Bitcoin rose on Wednesday, headlining gains across broader cryptocurrency prices after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Iran war will end soon and sparked a rally across risk assets.
The world's largest crypto advanced after a largely muted performance in March, although it did outpace assets such as gold since the onset of the Iran conflict.
Bitcoin rose nearly 2% to $68,807.8 by 02:24 ET (06:24 GMT).
Trump says Iran war could end in 2-3 weeks; Hormuz reopening unclear
Trump said on Tuesday evening that the U.S. intended to cease military operations against Iran in the next two or three weeks.
The president claimed that the U.S. had achieved its goals in Iran, specifically denting the country's nuclear ambitions, and that Washington had also caused regime change in Tehran.
Trump also said it was not necessary for Tehran to accept a deal to end the war. But this left markets uncertain over whether the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.
Reports earlier this week, along with comments from Trump, suggested that the U.S. will not attempt to reopen the strait, instead leaving it to its European and Gulf allies.
Iranian ministers said they will reopen the strait but heavily implied that they could charge a toll for passage. Oil prices whipsawed on Wednesday.
Energy-driven inflation, stemming from the Iran conflict, was a major point of concern for markets through March amid concerns that major global central banks will turn policy hawkish.
Such a scenario bodes poorly for speculative assets like crypto.
Google paper flags crypto vulnerability from quantum computing
Google researchers said in a recent paper that crypto could be more vulnerable to breakthroughs in quantum computing than initially thought.
Google said in a white paper that quantum computing may break elliptic curve cryptography, a type of cryptography that Bitcoin is based on.
Google quantum researchers demonstrated that breaking the elliptic curve may take less than 500,000 physical qubits on a superconducting quantum computer, roughly 20 times fewer qubits than initially estimated.
While the technology to run such computing does not practically exist today, Google researchers warned that such computers could exist by 2029. They also urged the crypto industry to consider transitioning blockchains to post-quantum cryptography.
The research cited contributions from Coinbase, the Stanford Institute for Blockchain Research, and the Ethereum Foundation.
Crypto price today: altcoins rise on Iran deescalation hopes
Broader crypto prices largely advanced, tracking gains in Bitcoin on hopes of an end to the Iran war.
World no.2 crypto Ether rose 4.2% to $2.148.85, while XRP rose 2.8% to $1.3605.
Solana, Cardano, and BNB rose between 1% and 2.5%.
Among memecoins, Dogecoin added 2.7%, while $TRUMP was flat.
Most altcoins were nursing a flat-to-low performance in March, as the Iran war largely dented appetite for speculative assets. But the sector still fared relatively better than other risk-driven assets.