Roughly 20,000 sailors are stuck on up to 2,000 ships in the Persian Gulf right now, and they’re running out of food and water. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has kept the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries 20-25% of global oil and LNG supply, effectively sealed since early March 2026.
At least 10 crew members have died. The International Maritime Organization has called the situation “unprecedented.” And buried in the chaos is a detail that should make every crypto observer pay attention: Iran has proposed using Bitcoin to handle ship insurance and toll payments, an attempt to sidestep the international sanctions regime entirely.
A humanitarian crisis floating at anchor
The IRGC initially declared the strait closed around March 2-4, 2026, following US and Israeli military strikes. A brief reopening in mid-April gave some hope that normalcy might return. It didn’t. Iran reversed course and tightened restrictions further through April and May, implementing new transit protocols that effectively kept commercial vessels locked in place.
Many of these ships have now been anchored for over 60 days with limited resupply options.
