- Iran collects tribute from ships in yuan and Tether (USDT) for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
- A stablecoin issuer can deprive the state of digital assets by freezing them.
- The fact that payment in Bitcoin was received for the passage of ships has not yet been confirmed.
In light of the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, it makes sense to answer the question of why Iran is taking such a risk by accepting stablecoin payments for the passage of ships.
In March, the Iranian parliament approved a plan to manage shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, under which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will charge tanker owners $1 per barrel of oil on board for leaving the Persian Gulf. According to communication Happy Coin News, the military accepts yuan and stablecoins as payment Tether (USDT) and receive $20 million per day for tanker transit.
The military takes a risk when taking USDT from counterparties because the cryptocurrency issuer company Tether could freeze digital assets and thus deprive the IRGC of the collected tribute. However, using USDT is much more dangerous than, for example, USDC (USDC). This is evidenced by the fact that Tether blocked 30 times more coins than the company Circle issued USDC.
However, rumors that Iran is being paid in Bitcoin have not yet been confirmed. Blockchain analysts from TRM Labs, Chainalysis, and Galaxy Digital not recorded transactions likely related to the extortion faced by ship owners. Experts believe that such transfers would have been made through Lightning Network, but this network did not process transactions of $2 million or more, as it was impossible to do so due to low liquidity.
Founder of the exchange BitMEX Arthur Hayes originally was skeptical to speculation about payment for ships’ passage being made in Bitcoin, and he was likely right. He demanded at least one transaction as proof, but this has not yet been provided.
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