TehranIran now sells Hormuz transit insurance, payable in Bitcoin.
The new authority charges for passage insurance through the strait, which carries 20% of global oil.
The US warned companies that paying Iran for passage risks sanctions; no shipper has agreed.
Sources: Al Jazeera Online
THE CHOKEPOINT
Hormuz is 33 km wide at its narrowest, but the shipping lanes are just 3 km each — two inbound, two outbound, separated by a 3 km buffer. Roughly 20 million barrels of oil pass through daily, about a fifth of global consumption. The deepest channel hugs the Iranian side.
THE INSURANCE LAYER
When Hormuz tensions rise, Lloyd's of London reclassifies the Gulf as a war-risk zone. Premiums on tankers can jump from 0.03% to 3% of cargo value overnight — effectively a tax on global oil that kicks in before a single shot is fired. Iran's move is to insert itself between the shipper and that premium.
THE SANCTIONS TRIPWIRE
OFAC's secondary sanctions regime means any non-US entity that knowingly transacts with sanctioned Iranian bodies can be cut off from the dollar system. A shipper paying Tehran for Hormuz transit — in any currency — triggers the same exposure as buying Iranian crude. This is why no major operator has signed on.
THE BYPASS GEOGRAPHY
Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline (5 million bbl/day) and the UAE's Habshan-Fujairah line together reroute maybe a third of Gulf exports around Hormuz. The rest — Qatari LNG, Kuwaiti crude, Iraqi southern exports, Iran's own Kharg loadings — has no alternative route. The chokepoint cannot be engineered away.
WHY BITCOIN, WHY NOW
Iran has been the world's most isolated major economy from dollar clearing since 2018. Bitcoin offers settlement without correspondent banks — but chain analysis firms now trace flows well enough that large counterparties still face exposure. The toll is less a revenue mechanism than a sovereignty claim: Tehran asserting jurisdiction over a strait UNCLOS treats as international transit.
THE LEGAL POSTURE
Under UNCLOS Article 38, ships have a right of transit passage through international straits — coastal states cannot suspend passage or charge for it. Iran signed UNCLOS in 1982 but never ratified, and has long argued Hormuz is governed by Iranian domestic law. A transit toll is the most concrete test yet of that position.