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Iran Demands Bitcoin For Ships Passing Hormuz During Ceasefire (ft.com) 221

Posted by BeauHD from the strait-of-HODL dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls in cryptocurrency for laden oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz (source paywalled; alternative source), as it seeks to retain control over passage through the key waterway during the two-week ceasefire. Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, told the FT on Wednesday that Iran wanted to collect tolling fees from any tanker passing and to assess each ship.

"Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren't used for transferring weapons," said Hosseini, whose industry association works closely with the state. "Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush," he added. [...] Hosseini said that each tanker must email authorities about its cargo, after which Iran will inform them of the toll to be paid in digital currencies.

He said that the tariff is $1 per barrel of oil, adding that empty tankers can pass freely. "Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions," Hosseini added.
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Iran Demands Bitcoin For Ships Passing Hormuz During Ceasefire More

Iran Demands Bitcoin For Ships Passing Hormuz During Ceasefire

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  • "...a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @03:03PM (#66083704)
    This person isn't familiar with Bitcoin, at all.

    • Re:"...a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin" (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @03:22PM (#66083750) Homepage

      There's the Lightning Network now, which if you believe the Bitcoin bros, is like a turbocharger for Bitcoin. The reality is, it adds some additional potential failure points, risks, and inconveniences, since now you're basically trading Bitcoin on a separate blockchain, where the transactions are ultimately consolidated and then committed to the main Bitcoin blockchain.

      Really, at that point, you should just be using a different cryptocurrency anyway, but you know the old saying about the market remaining irrational...

      • I've been very fond of the "actual money" currency. Its got a much less "fiat" backing than cryptocurrencies, doesnt involve any expensive proof of works and is reliably handled by almost all brokerages.

        And you can buy pizza with it. Hell, keep it in paper form, its even anonymous.

      • Its all just Bitcoins. Lightning works by essentially generating a Bitcoin transaction then sending that transaction to both parties. Then either party can publish the plain Bitcoin transaction whenever they want. This will finalize all payments and essentially close the channel. But everything's still Bitcoin.

        There are some downsides to LN, but not being Bitcoin is not one of them.

    • If course he is. Bitcoin may take a while to be committed to the chain, but that doesn't mean you can't have an exchange in a friendly country guarantee the exchange while the technical issues resolve themselves in the background.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )
      It's not the payment that takes minutes, it's the verification that takes minutes. The slow moving tanker will still be in range when verification occurs.
    • Bitcoin is haram.

    • That's exactly how it works. It takes about 5 seconds for a transaction to show up. Now, depending on the security requirements and value involved, you probably want to wait 30-60 mins for confirmations from miners. But the reality is that initial transaction you see in a few moments is more of a guarantee you will receive the money than a bank telling you they moved the money already.

  • Sorry (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    All I have are trump shitcoins

    • Hmm. I wonder if this is a chance to offload my NFTs.

      What does their Allah say about Monkey Jpegs ?

    • All I have are trump shitcoins

      Good. Because by the end of negotiations there will be a switch to TumpCoins.

  • Asked on Monday whether he would accept a deal that would allow Iran to take fees from ships to traverse the strait, the US president said: “What about us charging tolls? I’d rather do that than let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won.”

    and with echoes of the Mexico border wall:

    The White House said last week that Trump is considering asking Arab countries to pay for Washington’s expenses in its war on Iran.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]

    • Asked on Monday whether he would accept a deal that would allow Iran to take fees from ships to traverse the strait, the US president said: “What about us charging tolls? I’d rather do that than let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won.”

      and with echoes of the Mexico border wall:

      The White House said last week that Trump is considering asking Arab countries to pay for Washington’s expenses in its war on Iran.

      https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]

      So... Trump muses about the U.S. imposing passage fees/tolls on a foreign body of water, totally unconnected to the U.S., and Arab countries reimbursing the U.S. for a war he started on a whim (apparently talked [nytimes.com] into it by Benjamin Netanyahu, who's had a 47-year hard-on for this). Also, continues to misunderstand "winning". Classic Trump.

      • Re:Trump likes that idea... for himself (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AnOnyxMouseCoward ( 3693517 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @04:44PM (#66083914)
        You have to wonder what happens behind closed doors sometimes... I don't know that Trump understands anything at all of the current situation. From where I sit here's what happened:

        The Israelis build a nice presentation that tells Trump he'll be the world savior if he attacks Iran, and that success is guaranteed. The US army generals disagree, but Bibi Netanyahu worked at BCG, a top consulting firm, and there's no way his folks aren't convincing. Trump buys it and thinks it'll also stop people from talking about him being a pedo, so launches missiles. A few weeks in he realizes it's not working out, victory is taking time, and the narrative is changing (aka the stock market is crumbling, which is one of the few things he cares about). He asks his team to fix it, and so negotiations start. Negotiations aren't going well, but he's pushing his team of sycophants to do something while posting on social media how this is a beautiful war, some say it's the most beautiful, and Iran will pay and be destroyed and also Allahu Akbar. His team manages to have a draft of a beginning of an understanding with Iran, so immediately that's announced via the official governmental channel that is Truth Social (also called Pravda by the USSR). In the meantime the peace plan has barely any shape and is not in any way advantageous to the US, but there's a whole room of sycophants telling Trump "we're winning". Cue Trump's announcement that the First Epstein War is over.

      • ... a war he started on a whim

        Not really. US special envoy Steve Witkoff reported that during negotiations the Iranians claimed to have 1000 pounds of enriched uranium that could be further enriched to produce 11 nuclear bombs. A bluff or not, it is product to assume it true.

        ... apparently (nytimes) talked into it by Benjamin Netanyahu,

        Not really. The Vice President recently pointed out there are numerous 10-point lists from numerous factions. And the one the NYT refers to is one rejected and originating from the Revolutionary Guard. Its not what the current cease fire and talks are based on.

  • Pyrrhic Victory (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @03:22PM (#66083748)
    So let me get this straight (pun intended) -- we spent billions of dollars bombing Iran. They still are able to block the Strait and are now charging a tax that didn't exist before, to pay to repair things we bombed. Trump says there's "Complete and Total regime change," but the leader of Iran is still named the Ayatollah Khamenei. I'm not sure how any measure shows the US campaign was a success. On the contrary, it is likely a pyrrhic Victory that will embolden Iran, strengthen their Islamist regime and defiance, and fracture US alliances like NATO. What exactly was accomplished here? The end result seems like we're now giving Iran money and allowing them to dominate the Strait officially.

    • It’s a success because he says so and then Fox repeats it. Cult followers hear the gospel and it’s fact.

      • It’s a success because he says so and then Fox repeats it. Cult followers hear the gospel and it’s fact.

        They love the taste of Kool-Aid in the morning ...

    • That's about right (Score:5, Informative)

      by abulafia ( 7826 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @03:50PM (#66083816)
      And it didn't even really pull the heat of the Epstein stuff, so it failed there, too.

      On the bright side, the dipshit also badly damaged his coalition.

      But yes, Stumpy: - spent upwards of 12 digits on war porn without any plan,
      - got badly outplayed by Iran on one side, Israel on the other, and China playing adult in the room,
      - destroyed the Freedom of Navigation the world depends on for trade the US used to guarantee,
      - spit in the face of our allies, yet again,
      - demonstrated to the world that the US cannot be trusted to keep commitments,
      - turned the most active Iranian protests against the regime in decades into very public demonstrations [independent.co.uk] defending it.

      Oh - and we're not done. Iran says the ceasefire isn't on yet, because US/Israel is violating several of the provisions, and the Strait is not, in fact, open.

      This is that fucking idiot failure Don Trump's gift for Americans.

    • Re:Pyrrhic Victory (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @03:52PM (#66083822)
      The number of people that still pay attention to what Trump *says* is mind-boggling to me. His story changes every 4 hours. It's deliberate. He's running his messaging strategy like a reality show. It's designed to keep people off balance, uncertain, distracted and misinformed. It's designed to encourage you to "tune in" a few hours later. He's trying to maximize "viewership".

      If you ignore the messaging, and pay attention to what's actually happening, you would know that the US is gearing up for a limited land war. This is nothing secret It's been covered on all the major news channels. But, it's second-run news that doesn't get the top billing, because it doesn't get as many likes and clicks as the will-he-won't-he reality show stuff you get from the Trump admin.

      The smart people knew that Russia was gonna invade Ukraine, months before it happened. There was a ton of public info about it, but very few people paid attention because it's not intertaining stuff. Same thing is happening here. There's gonna be a limited land war in Iran, at the very least. It's gonna take a LONG time. And, when it happens, three quarters of the world are gonna make a surprised-pikachu-face.

      • He's running his messaging strategy like a reality show. It's designed to keep people off balance, uncertain, distracted and misinformed. It's designed to encourage you to "tune in" a few hours later.

        I think you give him too much credit. I don't think his "messaging strategy" has any design, nor is it a strategy. It's just Trump saying whatever shit bubbles to the top of what sometimes passes for a mind. And it's random and changes every four hours because he's random and changes what he believes every four hours. Or every four minutes.

        I don't think he even "learned" to act like a reality show... I think this is just who he is and who he always has been, albeit with an added layer of growing demen

    • No surprise at all. It's his usual M.O. Create a crisis, go back with nothing accomplished, claim victory for ending the crisis.

    • Also: minesweepers, hello?

      Who wasn't thinking yesterday would be TACO Tuesday? Today market goes crazy, like, OMG we were "THIS CLOSE". Is NYSE a slapstick number now?

    • I don't have a non-paywalled version of the article unfortunately, but this article by Robert A Pape is interesting and basically argues that Iran has been positioned to ascend to a fourth global power (alongside America, China and Russia) solely based on how they've played their hand and their dominance of that one strait. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0... [nytimes.com]

    • So let me get this straight (pun intended) -- we spent billions of dollars bombing Iran. They still are able to block the Strait and are now charging a tax that didn't exist before, to pay to repair things we bombed. Trump says there's "Complete and Total regime change," but the leader of Iran is still named the Ayatollah Khamenei. I'm not sure how any measure shows the US campaign was a success. On the contrary, it is likely a pyrrhic Victory that will embolden Iran, strengthen their Islamist regime and defiance, and fracture US alliances like NATO. What exactly was accomplished here? The end result seems like we're now giving Iran money and allowing them to dominate the Strait officially.

      Don't forget that Iran still has their stockpile of uranium and enriched uranium, and some unknown quantity of drones and ballistic missiles (and can build more). And Trump suspended sanctions on Iranian (and Russian) oil sales, to soften U.S. fuel prices. I get the feeling that, despite all his talk, Trump doesn't really understand the word, "winning". But, hey, the U.S. blew up a *bunch* of stuff and used/wasted a large portion of our super expensive Tomahawk missiles and other ordinances, burned thro

    • Re:Pyrrhic Victory (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Arrogant-Bastard ( 141720 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @04:15PM (#66083864)
      First, you're right. And second: it gets better.

      The former leader of Iran was 86 years old, in failing health, and facing increasing internal opposition despite repeated crackdowns. By killing him, the US turned him into a martyr, not just for hardcore loyalists in Iran, but for many others across the entire Middle East. And his replacement not only has political, ideological, and religious motivation, but: the US made it personal.

      Thanks to incompetent drunk Pete Hegseth, the US bombed a school and killed a lot of little girls. That won't be forgotten for a long, long time. Not only has it enraged much of the population, but it undercut the opposition movement by providing fresh evidence that the US isn't and has never been on the side of the Iranian people.

      The parade of unhinged threats from Trump has been an absolute gift to Iran's strategic and tactical military planners. if the ceasefire holds for a while, they can use the time to bolster defenses in at least some of the right places, because Trump gave them a target list. Politically, it nicely demonstrates to everyone -- including US allies -- that Trump is a psychotic moron who cannot be trusted. I think at this point that if he decides to pull the US out of NATO, they might offer to hold the door open for him. He is quite clearly demented AND insane: it's obvious on inspection.

      There's a reason Iran wants to be paid in cryptocurrency, aka fake money for criminals. Do you know which country really REALLY wants cryptocurrency, lots of it? Which country has knocked itself out running numerous large-scale operations to get it? North Korea. That's the reason: Iran no doubt already has a deal in place for weapons, and the North Koreans are happy to supply them because they've very interested in finding out how those weapons perform in live combat against the US military.

      Bottom line: the US lost in every possible way, and provided a textbook counterexample to the principles expounded in The Art of War.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by WaffleMonster ( 969671 )

        The former leader of Iran was 86 years old, in failing health, and facing increasing internal opposition despite repeated crackdowns. By killing him, the US turned him into a martyr, not just for hardcore loyalists in Iran, but for many others across the entire Middle East. And his replacement not only has political, ideological, and religious motivation, but: the US made it personal.

        Assuming Mojtaba is not a vegetable he lacks religious credentials, has no charisma and hereditary ascension cuts against a core tenant of the Islamic revolution. What having him in place makes bare to Iranians is the IRGC is running the country as a mafia state and he is its puppet.

        Thanks to incompetent drunk Pete Hegseth, the US bombed a school and killed a lot of little girls. That won't be forgotten for a long, long time. Not only has it enraged much of the population, but it undercut the opposition movement by providing fresh evidence that the US isn't and has never been on the side of the Iranian people.

        More Iranians are enraged over the prospect of being abandoned as bombs stop falling. Iranians supporting attacks against the regime were well aware of the fact there would be collateral damage. There were never any safe opti

        • The rank and filed that those radicals need to stage an actual revolution aren't. Just like when 9/11 happened in America I can tell you right now that every single regular Iranian person is going to rally around the government and the military. Doesn't matter how terrible the government and the military are when your country is attacked you rally round them.

          On top of that Trump has done numerous stupid things guaranteed to undermine any opposition of the Iranian regime. Go look up YouTuber Belle of the

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Bert64 ( 520050 )

            Just like when 9/11 happened in America I can tell you right now that every single regular Iranian person is going to rally around the government and the military. Doesn't matter how terrible the government and the military are when your country is attacked you rally round them.

            Do you actually know any Iranians?
            The majority of them hate the regime and want it to fall, but the loudest voice online is the regime because not only do they commit a lot of resources to spreading propaganda around the world, they also suppress the voices of ordinary people so it's more difficult for them to speak out.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      In the medium to long term the main outcome of this war will be accelerating the move away from US based currency and payment systems. Lots of alternatives to Mastercard and Visa already have some momentum, and trading oil is moving away from USD.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      There has been regime change. The old supreme leader was killed. The new one was thought to be too extreme by the old one, but that was before his mother, father, wife, child and a bunch of other family members were killed by the US and Israel. Much the same experience as a bunch of other young Iranians who might have been leaning towards the whole US = the great satan thing being a bit of hypoerbole.

    • What exactly was accomplished here?

      The big story that Western media is missing here is Iran's proxies, and their effect on Israeli security.

      Iran's proxies are effective. I watched the Joe Kent [x.com] interview with Shawn Ryan, and they admitted that Iran's proxies had killed a lot of Americans in Iraq. What is well known in Israel I'm sure, but what they've been very poor at conveying in the Western media is that they were being hit from the south by the Houthis (Shia), from the west by Hamas (Sunni) and from the

  • These cryptocurrency payments can't be used to fund terror and evade sanctions since all the transactions are public on the blockchain! Also, would anyone like to buy a bridge?

  • The paywall on the article is broken, with "undefined" in place of the price in every instance on the text. I'm not on a VPN or doing any crazy monkeying with the site. Just Firefox on Android with uBlock Origin, connecting direct over my home Wi-Fi.

    Almost seems appropriate to get a tollbooth on an article about an Iranian tollbooth.

  • will they take ez-pass?

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