TL;DR
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Iran is slowly but selectively opening up the Strait of Hormuz.
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Because of sanctions, tolls are being collected in crypto and yuan, rather than dollars.
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Iran have been involved in crypto since at least 2019 in order to circumvent sanctions.
If you haven’t heard about the Strait of Hormuz at this point you may be living under a rock. The narrow passage out of the Gulf handles about 20% of global oil. It’s been Iran's strongest bargaining chip in the war.
For a while it was completely closed but Iran has been slowly and selectively been opening up the strait over the last week. Vessels are put in tiers based on country of origin, from 1-5 with 5 being western and completely banned from passing. Malaysia, for example, is tier 1 and has free passage through the strait. Tier 2-4 are tolled.
What’s interesting about the tolls is the payment. Oil is historically a dollar affair. But the tolls for passing the strait are settled in Yuan via Kunlun Bank - or stablecoins. This way the Iranian government can circumvent the SWIFT network.
Crypto In Iran
Their acceptance of crypto isn’t surprising. Since the country has been sanctioned by the US it’s had to find innovative ways to take part in global trade. Back in 2019, the country legalized Bitcoin mining and miners from the country peaked at about 4.5% of the global hashrate. All licensed Bitcoin miners were required to sell to the Central Bank of Iran.
Not only that, but on-chain crypto activity in Iran reached almost $8 billion in 2025 with 50% of that volume going through addresses tied to the IRGC. Reportedly, the Central Bank of Iran has accumulated more than $0.5 billion in USDT.
This is all part of their strategy to circumvent global sanctions. In January, the Iranian government started allowing crypto payments for arms exports. This strategy has now been extended to the collection of tolls in the Hormuz Strait.
What this means for crypto
This is a first glimpse of how stablecoins may be used at government level at a large scale. The collection of stablecoins shows that large scale transfers and deals can be settled with blockchain technology in wartime conditions.
It remains to be seen whether the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) can apply enough pressure on the US connected companies Tether and Circle to freeze assets in wallets linked to the IRGC and Hormuz Strait toll settlements.
Some precedent has already been set in January of this year when UK registered exchanges Zedcex and Zedxion were sanctioned by the OFAC for their involvement with the IRGC. Shadow banking networks in Hong Kong and the UAE were also sanctioned last year for facilitating crypto transactions for both the IRGC and Iranian Ministry of Defence. Just a few weeks ago Democratic senators launched a probe into whether Iran had used Binance to evade US sanctions.
