The Iranian government's decision to accept cryptocurrency payments from cargo ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz is a logical extension of its existing sanctions-bypassing trade networks, according to experts in blockchain-based criminal activity. This development has been confirmed by a spokesperson for Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, who stated that bitcoin is being accepted as a payment method. A previous report suggested that stablecoins were also being used to facilitate the passage of select oil tankers. The toll for these shipments is reportedly $1 per barrel of oil, with larger tankers carrying up to two million barrels.
The formalization of a cryptocurrency-based system for shipping toll payments appears to be a bold move, yet it aligns with the Iranian regime's, and specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC), increasing use of cryptocurrency to facilitate cross-border trade over the past few years. Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, noted that 'it's highly unsurprising that this type of trade would be happening via cryptocurrency as well,' referring to the toll paid by ships allowed to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. A review of sanctioned activity over the last year and a half reveals a complex and growing network utilizing crypto wallets.
In December 2024, a U.S.-sanctioned, IRGC-affiliated financier linked to the Iran-backed Houthi regime facilitated Iranian oil sales to Yemen involving cryptocurrency addresses, resulting in over $178 million in transfers within a year. Then, in April 2025, a broader network of Houthi financiers purchased weapons and commodities from Russia, with their cryptocurrency addresses included in a sanctions designation accounting for nearly a billion dollars in activity over the course of a year. The Houthis, an Iran-backed armed group controlling much of northern Yemen, have raised the prospect of imposing a second chokepoint on the world's oil and gas shipping trade at the Bab-al-Mandeb channel.
According to Fierman, the picture is one of IRGC-affiliated networks using crypto at a commercial scale to facilitate cross-border trade. The Iranian regime has been comprehensively sanctioned since 1979, including individual sanctions on almost every bank, making it challenging for them to access U.S. dollar-pegged assets and trade internationally. Tom Keatinge, founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security at UK defence think tank RUSI, agreed that USD-backed stablecoins have become an increasingly important payment mechanism for the Iranian regime, allowing them to avoid sanctions and western banking controls.
Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at Duke University's Financial Economics Center, suggested that Iran could further its sanctions-skirting stablecoin goals by demanding payment in USD1, a stablecoin launched by the Trump family-affiliated World Liberty Financial in March 2025.