It is no surprise that Iran accepts cryptocurrency payments from cargo ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Blockchain crime experts say the move fits perfectly with the Iranian government’s existing sanctions-evading trade network.
The toll on cryptocurrencies in Iran was confirmed by recent comments from a spokesperson for the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals Exporters Association, who said Bitcoin was accepted as a payment method. Previous reports suggested that stablecoins were being accepted to help a select few oil tankers pass through unscathed. Both reports said the fee would be $1 per barrel of oil and the largest tankers would transport up to 2 million barrels.
Formalizing a system to pay for shipping using stablecoins pegged to Bitcoin and the US dollar seems like a bold move. But in reality, the Iranian regime, and more specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has increased its use of cryptocurrencies in recent years to facilitate cross-border commercial trade, particularly the sale of Iranian oil, according to data from blockchain analysis specialist Chainalysis.
“It’s not at all surprising that these types of transactions would be conducted via cryptocurrencies,” said Andrew Fierman, director of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, referring to tolls paid by ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow seaway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes.
A snapshot of sanctioned activity over the past year and a half shows a growing and complex network using cryptocurrency wallets. Back in December 2024, a US-sanctioned Revolutionary Guards-affiliated financier with ties to the Iranian-backed Houthi regime facilitated the sale of Iranian oil to Yemen using virtual currency addresses. This resulted in more than $178 million in transfer fees in one year.
And in April 2025, a broader network of Houthi financiers was purchasing weapons and household goods from Russia. Their cryptocurrency addresses were sanctioned for nearly $1 billion worth of activity in about a year.
Interestingly, the Iranian-backed Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, has raised the possibility of imposing a second barrier to global oil and gas shipping trade at the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
In any case, Chianalysis’s Fiermann says the picture shows one of an IRGC-affiliated network using cryptography on a commercial scale to facilitate cross-border trade. This is a much more complex and established system than simply using a small number of wallets permanently, he said.
“They have a network of crypto wallets that the regime is using to facilitate this cross-border activity. Accepting these payments in crypto is potentially easier than using the traditional banking system, and there’s enough liquidity there that you don’t actually even need to use a crypto exchange,” Fiermann said in an interview.
Fiermann pointed out that the Revolutionary Guards’ widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies, particularly stablecoins, as a means of payment for cross-border trade is exactly the opposite of the situation in North Korea, where their primary goal is to steal and launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.
The Iranian regime has been under comprehensive sanctions since 1979, including individual sanctions against almost all banks, making international trade difficult as it cannot access assets pegged to the US dollar.
“The reality is that most trading partners don’t want to trade in rials or tomans, especially given the hyperinflation that is happening regularly in the country as well. So this ability to acquire assets pegged to the US dollar creates a mechanism that allows them to trade globally with anyone who wants to trade, in an alternative mechanism that does not rely on the traditional banking system,” Fiermann said.
In Iran, the official currency is the Rial (IRR), but people universally use the Toman on a daily basis, for example in shops. 1 toman is equivalent to 10 rials.
Tom Keatinge, founding director of the Center for Finance and Security (CFS) at British defense think tank RUSI, agreed that US dollar-denominated stablecoins have become an increasingly important payment mechanism for the Iranian regime to circumvent sanctions and Western banking regulations.
“While the use of stablecoins may expose users to Western regulatory intervention, the evidence suggests this risk is low,” Keating said in an email.
Lee Reiners, a lecturer at Duke University’s Center for Financial Economics, suggested new ways the Iranian regime could circumvent sanctions and further its stablecoin goals.
“If Iran is thinking strategically, it might take a cue from its neighbor across the Strait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to demand a $1 payment,” Reiners said, referring to a stablecoin launched by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial in March 2025. “That would give the U.S. president an economic incentive to lift sanctions and free Iran to charge whatever fees it wants.”
