Bitcoin abruptly surges to $68,000 as Iran confirms that US and Israel killed Ayatollah Khamenei

Just hours after President Donald Trump said the federal government would stop using Anthropic’s AI tools, the US carried out a major air operation in Iran that relied on those same tools.

After that first mention, Trump was moving in one direction publicly while parts of the system were still running on the other track operationally.

The Wall Street Journal said military commands worldwide, including U.S. Central Command in the Middle East, use Claude, Anthropic’s AI product. Centcom would not comment on what specific systems it is using in the ongoing operation.

Reportedly, the command uses the tool for intelligence assessments, target identification, and running battle-scenario simulations.

The details underline how deeply these AI systems are already baked into day-to-day military work, even when the politics around them turns hostile.

The fallout comes after months of friction between the administration and Anthropic over how the Pentagon should be allowed to use the company’s models.

On Friday, Donald ordered agencies to stop working with Anthropic, and the Defense Department labeled the firm a security threat and a supply chain risk.

Iranian state media is now saying Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was at his office doing his normal work when the attack happened in the early hours of Saturday morning. That directly clashes with earlier claims from Israel about his status.

In a separate statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country has lost a leader they are mourning, and described him as exceptional in spiritual purity, faith, practical leadership, courage against what they called arrogant powers, and devotion to jihad.

State-run IRNA reports Iran’s leadership has declared 40 days of mourning and a seven-day nationwide shutdown. IRNA did not spell out what the shutdown will look like in practice, and it is still unclear whether Iran’s strikes on Israel or US military targets in the region will continue during that period.

Ali’s reach was never just domestic. He styled himself as a global figure for Shiite Muslims, and under his leadership the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps grew deeper and broader across the state.

The Guard’s structure includes its own ground, air, and naval branches, plus a plainclothes militia, and it also built a major business footprint that has been described as reaching as much as 40% of Iran’s economy.

Iran also expanded a wide network of allies, both state and non-state, across the Middle East, designed to fight on Iran’s behalf and act as a deterrent ring. Under Ali, Iran’s influence grew across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that he’s seeing “many signs” Iran’s supreme leader is “no longer with us,” but he did not flat-out say Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed. Benjamin also claimed Israel destroyed Ali’s compound.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC earlier that, as far as he knew, Ali and other senior Iranian officials were still alive. Iran has not released a video of Ali since the strikes began Saturday morning.

Benjamin said Israel’s campaign against Iran will take “patience” and will keep going for as long as it needs to. He also insisted the war would end with “real peace.”

Iran pushed back publicly. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told ABC News on Saturday that Iran’s president and Ali are “safe and sound,” and said the government system is still functioning.

JPMorgan estimates that if the Strait of Hormuz gets shut, oil could run to $120 to $130 a barrel.

In that scenario, they see US CPI inflation jumping to around 5%.

The last time US inflation printed at 5% was March 2023, when the Federal Reserve was still pushing through aggressive rate hikes.

The link is pretty direct because energy prices feed straight into the CPI basket. A Fed study found that every $10 climb in oil can add about 20 basis points to inflation.

Oil is already up about $15 from recent lows, which roughly lines up with about 30 basis points of extra CPI pressure.

There’s also a supply bottleneck angle. In 2024, Saudi Arabia’s crude and condensate exports made up 38% of total crude flows through Hormuz, or about 5.5 million barrels per day, and that route still matters even for buyers in the US and EU.

Oil futures finished Friday higher, and the gains were already big before the weekend headlines accelerated the tension. Brent futures, the global benchmark (BZ=F), were up about 2.9% and settled above $72.80.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, the US benchmark (CL=F), rose about 2.8% and ended the day above $67.

The market’s main pressure point is the Strait of Hormuz, because roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through that passage each day.

Reuters reported that on Saturday, ships in the area were told over the radio by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that no vessel is allowed to transit the strait.

Within minutes of the US attack, Reuters also said multiple oil majors and big trading houses paused oil and fuel cargoes moving through Hormuz.

On the supply side, OPEC+ is expected to hold its regular monthly meeting on Sunday, and there’s chatter in the industry that the group could raise production targets by more than the earlier expectation of 137,000 barrels per day.

Iran’s role matters here because it pumps about 3.4 million barrels per day, which is around 4% of global supply, and it exports about 1 million to 2 million barrels per day, according to Kpler. Kpler’s data also points to most of those sanctioned barrels ending up in China.

A crypto exchange that usually screams 24/7 token trading is getting used in a very different way this weekend, as traders look for round-the-clock hedges while tensions between the US, Israel, and Iran keep climbing.

On Hyperliquid, perpetual swap futures linked to oil jumped about 6.2% to around $70.6 a barrel. On the same venue, perps tied to gold and silver also ran, with gold up more than 5% to $5,464 per troy ounce and silver up more than 8% to $97.5 per troy ounce.

Those prints are basically a preview of what traders think might happen once the bigger, traditional markets reopen on Monday.

Silver has been the main magnet for activity on Hyperliquid, with over $400 million traded in the past 24 hours. Gold perps saw close to $140 million change hands.

Risk looks weaker on the same platform: US equity-linked indexes there were down roughly 1% to 2%.

Tokenized gold also spiked, hitting $5,494/oz as the US and Israel struck Iran and Iran hit back.

The regular gold market is still shut for roughly 27 more hours, so this tokenized and perp pricing is where traders are getting their live read right now.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump has spoken with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Karoline did not add more detail on what was discussed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and senior nuclear officials were killed.

During a short address, Benjamin also said there were multiple signs that Iran’s leader, Ali Khamenei, “is no longer,” but he did not directly confirm that Khamenei is dead.

Benjamin then urged Iranians to “flood the streets and finish the job.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom has entered the war against Iran. “Our forces are active and British planes are in the sky today, as part of co-ordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies,” Keir said.

Officials in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan say they are shooting down missiles launched from Iran that are aimed at US military bases located on their territory.

A few of those governments have also signaled they might answer back, but any response would likely be weighed heavily because of how fast this could spiral.

This is the scenario regional leaders have spent the last few weeks trying to avoid, with a lot of behind-the-scenes work focused on easing tensions between Iran and the United States.

Right now, the picture on the ground suggests the Trump administration leaned toward Israel’s view over the approach pushed by its Arab partners.

The core fear across the Arab capitals is that US and Israeli air strikes turn this into a broader regional conflict. They are worried Iran may not stop at US targets and could also hit critical sites like oil and gas facilities, or try to choke off the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil exports.

There is also a worst-case anxiety that if Iran’s government breaks down, the fallout could spill across borders in the form of refugees and weapons, especially with Donald Trump publicly framing the operation around regime change.

Iran’s Fars news agency said explosions were heard not only in Tehran, but also in Isfahan, Qom, Karaj, and Kermanshah.

The Israel Defence Force said it spotted missiles fired from Iran toward Israel a short time earlier. The military said sirens went off in multiple areas, and it told people to follow guidance from the Home Front Command.

The Israeli Air Force said it was working to intercept incoming fire and hit threats when needed. It also warned the public that its defenses are not perfect and stressed that people should keep sticking to Home Front instructions.

Separately, Iran-linked media outlets say the information space is getting hit too. The hard-line Hamshahri daily said on its Telegram channel that several Iranian state-linked news agencies and online platforms were targeted by cyber attacks after the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Hamshahri said a “widespread wave” of cyber operations was happening alongside the fighting, and that big local media platforms were dealing with outages or technical problems.

It said early reports pointed to access issues or hacks affecting IRNA and ISNA, and it also mentioned disruptions hitting popular online apps inside Iran, though it said details on who was behind it were still unclear.