Bitcoin and other cryptos fall as U.S., Iranian negotiators fail to reach war resolution
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said negotiations had ended after a daylong session in Pakistan, sending crypto prices down between 1.5% and 2%.
Updated Apr 12, 2026, 2:46 a.m. Published Apr 12, 2026, 2:05 a.m.
Bitcoin BTC$70,797.84 and other major cryptocurrencies all fell around 2% late Saturday evening U.S. hours after Vice President J.D. Vance announced that U.S. and Iranian negotiators had failed to agree to an extended ceasefire.
The parties met in Pakistan Saturday to negotiate an agreement after the U.S.’s nearly six-week long campaign against Iran. Vance said at a press conference afterward that the U.S. had “not reached an agreement.”
Bitcoin traded hands around $71,600 as of press time, while ether (ETH) fell to about $2,200. XRP slid to $1.33, and the broader CoinDesk 20 index similarly fell to 1,188.52 ??? each of these prices fell just under 2% in the immediate aftermath of Vance’s press conference.
“We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what things we are willing to accommodate them on and what we’re not willing to accommodate them on, and we’ve made that as clear as we possibly could,” he said.
Sticking points included the U.S.’s insistence that Iran would “not seek a nuclear weapon and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said in response to a press question.
Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that “numerous messages and texts have been exchanged.”
“In the past 24 hours, discussions were held on various dimensions of the main negotiation topics, including the Strait of Hormuz, the nuclear issue, war reparations, lifting of sanctions, and the complete end to the war against Iran and in the region,” he said.
UPDATE (April 12, 2026, 02:46 UTC): Adds Iranian official’s post.
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