Iran is reinforcing Bitcoin’s (BTC) anti-censorship role as it pushes to impose cryptocurrency tolls on ships seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
After an unstable 2-week ceasefire announced on April 8, Iran announced that it would charge 1 dollar per barrel for oil transported by ships. This means that a fully loaded ship carrying two million barrels of oil is worth approximately $2 million. At current prices, this equals roughly 281 BTC per ship, or 62% of the new daily Bitcoin supply (the network issues 450 new BTC per day).
Sharing the proposed toll plans, Hamid Hosseini, spokesman for the Iranian Association of Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters, told the Financial Times:
Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, ships are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they cannot be tracked or seized due to sanctions.
He added that empty ships will be allowed to pass freely. Previously, Bloomberg reported that Chinese Yuan is also an accepted payment method for navigating the Iranian-controlled oil corridor.
However, it was noteworthy that BTC tolls were added to avoid possible sanctions from the West. Iran reportedly closed Hormuz after Israel attacked Lebanon late Wednesday.
What do Iran’s plans mean for BTC?
Even before Iran’s crypto tolls hit the headlines, the industry was already showing strong resilience during the West Asian crisis. Actually, BTC performed better Gold rose as the crisis intensified in March.
Reacting to Iran choosing BTC as a toll payment, Strike founder Jack Mallers said that the crypto asset is in the race to become the ‘world reserve currency of the future’.
But others, such as BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, were skeptical about BTC tolls and emphasized that he would only believe such a transfer if it was verified on-chain.
When I see a tx tied to a ship’s toll payment I will believe that Iran collects the toll in BTC. Otherwise, it’s just the Revolutionary Guard trolling the West’s dirty fiat finance system.
But Iran is no stranger to crypto.
In late December and early January, Iran’s crypto activity rose to nearly $8 billion following the collapse of the local currency, the Rial. In fact, geopolitical tensions have also increased the adoption of BTC among Iranian citizens.
However, the Iranian government has also focused on crypto to circumvent Western sanctions. According to Chainalytic reportThe regime accounted for half of crypto activity in Iran.
Unfortunately, This has also made Iran’s crypto sector a prime target for attacks, such as the Nobitex breach linked to Israel last year.
Final Summary
- Iran is reportedly considering using BTC payments for tolls across the strait to avoid sanctions
- Jack Mallers predicted that this move could accelerate BTC’s race to become the world’s reserve currency
