The Iranian government's decision to accept cryptocurrency payments from cargo ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz is a logical progression of its existing sanctions-circumventing trade networks, according to experts in blockchain-based criminal activity. This development has been validated by a spokesperson for Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, who confirmed that bitcoin is being accepted as a payment method, with a fee of $1 per barrel of oil. A previous report suggested that stablecoins were also being accepted, allowing select oil tankers to pass through unimpeded, with the largest tankers carrying up to two million barrels. The formalization of a cryptocurrency-based shipping toll payment system appears to be a bold move, yet it aligns with the Iranian regime's, and specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC), growing use of cryptocurrency to facilitate cross-border trade over the past few years, particularly in relation to Iranian oil sales, as per data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, noted that it is unsurprising to see this type of trade occurring via cryptocurrency, given the existing sanctions and the IRGC's involvement. A review of sanctioned activity over the last year and a half reveals a complex and expanding network utilizing crypto wallets. In December 2024, a US-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. Furthermore, 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 within a year.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed armed group controlling much of northern Yemen, have also proposed 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 utilizing crypto at a commercial scale to facilitate cross-border trade, with a network of cryptocurrency wallets that the regime uses to facilitate this activity.
The use of cryptocurrency, particularly stablecoins, as a payment mechanism for cross-border trade is the inverse of North Korea's situation, where the primary goal is to steal and launder billions of dollars in crypto. The Iranian regime has been comprehensively sanctioned since 1979, including individual sanctions on almost every bank, making it challenging for them to access US dollar-pegged assets and trade internationally. The ability to obtain US dollar-pegged assets through stablecoins creates a mechanism for the regime to trade globally without relying on the traditional banking system.
Tom Keatinge, founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security at UK defense think tank RUSI, agreed that USD-backed stablecoins have become an essential payment mechanism for the Iranian regime, allowing them to evade sanctions and western banking controls. Lee Reiners, a lecturing fellow at Duke University's Financial Economics Center, suggested that the Iranian regime could further its sanctions-skirting stablecoin goals by demanding payment in specific stablecoins, potentially creating a novel and complex situation.