Washington has drawn a line in the sand, or more precisely, in the water. The United States issued Iran a Saturday deadline to declare the Strait of Hormuz fully open to international shipping or face unspecified consequences, escalating a confrontation that has already sent oil prices surging past $100 per barrel and, unexpectedly, placed cryptocurrency at the heart of a global geopolitical crisis.
The strait, a narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, handles roughly 20% of all global oil trade.
The toll system nobody saw coming
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly established a toll system in mid-March 2026, charging vessels up to $2 million each to transit the strait. That works out to roughly $1 per barrel of oil passing through.
The payment methods accepted: Bitcoin, Tether (USDT), and Chinese yuan. No dollars, obviously.
