The Bitcoin (BTC) community is debating the practicality and consequences of Iran accepting BTC for tolls charged to oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route handling roughly 20% of the world’s oil. The discussion followed a Financial Times report saying Tehran was considering Bitcoin payments for tolls to skirt U.S. sanctions.
Since the FT story, other accounts have conflicted, with some sources saying payments might be in stablecoins or Chinese yuan, according to Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at crypto investment firm Galaxy.
BTC advocate Justin Bechler argued stablecoins can be frozen by issuers and pointed to compliance measures in the GENIUS stablecoin regulatory framework as reasons Iran would avoid US-dollar stablecoins. He said:
“USDT and USDC include built-in blacklist functions at the smart contract level. When an address is flagged, the issuer can freeze the tokens, rendering them completely illiquid. The law’s enforcement depends entirely on the compliance of issuers. Bitcoin has no issuer, no compliance officer to pressure, and no freeze function. Iran’s pivot toward Bitcoin follows directly from this structural reality.”
Proponents say if Iran starts accepting BTC for tanker tolls, it would strengthen Bitcoin’s standing as a neutral settlement layer for international transactions.
Iran would likely use QR codes to collect BTC payments
Thorn estimated tolls per tanker could range from $200,000 to $2 million. The FT cited a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union saying ships would have a “few seconds” to complete payment in BTC, implying the use of the Lightning Network — a layer-2 solution that enables near-instant BTC transfers without waiting for 10-minute block confirmations.
However, Thorn noted the largest known Lightning Network transaction so far is about $1 million. He suggested a more probable approach is that Iranian authorities would supply a QR code or an alphanumeric Bitcoin address to ships once their passage is approved.
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