Nikkei reported that Japan will buy another 20 million barrels of oil from the United Arab Emirates as it seeks to bypass a blockade affecting the Strait of Hormuz, a critical energy shipping route. The move points to supply-chain risk management in response to transport disruption in the Middle East. While the item is focused on oil rather than digital assets, energy-market shocks can matter to crypto markets because they may affect inflation expectations, risk appetite, and the operating costs of energy-intensive activities such as proof-of-work mining (blockchain security through computing power).