"No need for US sanctions"...Iran Rakes in $20 Million with Bitcoin and Tether in Hormuz

▲ Iran, Strait of Hormuz, Bitcoin (BTC)/AI generated image

Iran is integrating virtual assets as national strategic assets by imposing Bitcoin (BTC) tolls on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. However, in the actual payment market, the stablecoin Tether (USDT) still maintains overwhelming dominance.

According to a report by the virtual asset specialized media Cointelegraph on April 18 (local time), Sam Lyman, an analyst at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, analyzed that while the Iranian government considers Bitcoin a strategic asset, it primarily uses Tether for oil toll payments. Lyman explained that Iran highly values Bitcoin's unseizable nature and has officially adopted it as a payment method for Strait of Hormuz tolls. However, in actual transactions, USDT, with its low price volatility and high liquidity, is at the center of payments.

In March, the Iranian parliament approved a plan to manage the Strait of Hormuz, beginning to impose a toll of $0.5 to $1 per barrel on oil tankers passing through the strait. With approximately 21 million barrels of crude oil passing through this area daily, Iran is expected to generate about $20 million in revenue each day. Annually, this amounts to a massive fund of up to $120 billion. To circumvent sanctions, Iran has put forward Bitcoin, the Chinese Yuan, and digital assets as payment methods instead of the traditional SWIFT network.

The Bitcoin Policy Institute pointed out that the current Bitcoin network has technical limitations in handling the large-scale payment volumes and speeds intended by Iran. Lyman stated that no large-scale Bitcoin movements sufficient to settle tolls for large oil tankers have yet been detected on on-chain data. Bitcoin transactions are public and take approximately 10 minutes for confirmation, which creates inconvenience for a toll system requiring real-time settlement. For this reason, Iran is employing a dual strategy: holding Bitcoin as a long-term strategic reserve asset and securing actual operating funds with stablecoins.

With sanctions from former US President Donald Trump's administration ongoing, virtual assets are becoming a powerful economic breakthrough for Iran. Iran has opened virtual asset exchange windows on Qeshm Island to immediately convert deposited funds into local currency or foreign currency accounts. Lyman analyzed that Iran defines Bitcoin not as a mere speculative asset but as digital oil, strengthening its influence over the global energy supply chain. This move is presenting a new economic model to other sanctioned countries, challenging US-led financial hegemony.

The virtual asset market views Iran's adoption of Bitcoin as a historic opportunity to strengthen the asset's fundamentals. As Bitcoin rises to the status of inter-country payments and strategic reserve assets, its value as digital gold is expected to become more robust. However, excessive reliance on stablecoins entails the risk of asset freezing by the issuer, so it remains to be seen whether Iran will pursue technical improvements through the Bitcoin Lightning Network or similar solutions in the future. The current situation, combining energy hegemony and virtual asset technology, will be an inflection point that shakes the future landscape of the global economy.

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