Hours after US President Donald Trump said Iran and the US had agreed to a two-week ceasefire that included opening the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian authorities are reportedly considering charging ships using the waterway in cryptocurrency.
According to a Financial Times report on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Union of Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exporters said empty oil tankers will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without incurring charges, but certain ships will have to pay a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil in Bitcoin (BTC).
Spokesman Hamid Hosseini reportedly said Iranian authorities would also assess each ship using the waterway during the two-week period to ensure they were not transporting weapons.
“Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels have a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they cannot be tracked or seized due to sanctions,” Hosseini said, according to the Financial Times.
Many ships have been effectively prevented from using the Strait of Hormuz to transport oil and other supplies after US and Israeli airstrikes against Iranian targets in February and March. Amid Iran’s move and geopolitical tensions, the price of crude oil surpassed $100 per barrel for the first time in four years and the prices of many cryptocurrencies were volatile, with BTC fluctuating between $65,000 and $75,000.
Related: Bitcoin recovers $72,000 after US and Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire
Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday that the ceasefire agreement included the suspension of the “bombing and attack on Iran for a period of two weeks” and the “complete, immediate and secure opening of the Strait of Hormuz.” Iran’s state media reported that the country delivered a 10-point plan to the US president as a condition of the deal, including continued control of the waterway and an end to sanctions on Iran.
Before the war, Iran was still using cryptocurrencies to strengthen its currency
Prior to the escalation of hostilities between US-Israeli forces and Iran in February, reports suggested that Iran had been using digital assets to evade sanctions amid the decline of its currency, the rial, against the US dollar.
Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic reported in January that Iran’s central bank acquired Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin worth $500 million. TRM Labs also tracked around $3.7 billion in total cryptocurrency flows in Iran between January and July 2025.
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