The Iranian government on April 10 requested oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay transit fees by electronic money to avoid financial sanctions from the US and internationally. The fee is 1 USD per barrel of oil transported through this strategic maritime route.
According to spokesman Hamid Hosseini of the Iranian Petroleum and Petrochemical Exporters Federation, this regulation aims to ensure that transactions cannot be traced or confiscated. The use of cryptocurrencies is seen as a solution to help Iran maintain financial flows in the context of restricted access to the global financial system.
The cryptocurrency economy in Iran reached a scale of about 7.8 billion USD last year, playing an important role in trade activities, including purchasing goods and weapons. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is one of the most actively involved units, regularly mining bitcoin despite limited domestic electricity. According to data from Chainalysis, this force and related groups account for more than half of cryptocurrency activities in Iran.
Besides bitcoin, the Central Bank of Iran has purchased at least 507 million USD of Tether, a stable currency guaranteed by USD, to support the domestic currency and serve international trade payments.
On the international market, the price of bitcoin has increased to about 72,700 USD/BTC after President Donald Trump announced a 2-week ceasefire on the condition that Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz. By the afternoon of April 9, this electronic currency traded around 72,128 USD/BTC.
The unstable situation also strongly impacted the US market when capital outflows from domestic exchanges such as Nobitex soared by 700% right after military operations involving the US and Israel. US regulators continue to target Iran's digital infrastructure with sanctions against exchanges related to the activities of the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
