Bitcoin for Iran oil tolls, but USDt still leads: BPI
The Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) says Iran is using Bitcoin as one payment method for oil ship tolls crossing the Strait of Hormuz, citing Bitcoin’s “censorship-resistant” properties. Sam Lyman, BPI head of research, said Iran selected BTC because no one can freeze the Bitcoin network or shut it down.
However, BPI reports no on-chain evidence of BTC being used for these tolls so far. Iran is also accepting Chinese yuan and US dollar-pegged stablecoins, with dollar stablecoins—especially USDt (USDT)—still dominating transaction flow. Lyman said the “majority” of Iran’s crypto activity is denominated in USDt.
BPI also notes that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps accounts for nearly half of Iran’s crypto market volume. On sanctions evasion, Lyman claimed Iran shifted about $3 billion in crypto since 2022, while the US Treasury was only able to freeze roughly $600 million—suggesting stablecoins remain the regime’s preferred tool due to liquidity and usability.
Bitcoin’s strategic framing by Iranian authorities may support broader narratives of BTC as a neutral settlement asset, but the current evidence points to stablecoins, not BTC, as the operational backbone of toll payments.
Neutral
虽然新闻强化了“Bitcoin作为战略资产/中性结算工具”的叙事，但BPI同时指出目前尚无链上证据显示BTC已实际用于伊朗油轮通行费；交易层面仍以美元稳定币（尤其USDT）为主。这意味着对BTC短期价格驱动可能有限：市场更可能将其视为地缘叙事与监管框架讨论，而非立刻转化为可量化的BTC需求。
类似事件中（如其他受制裁方在合规与链上可追踪之间做支付方式切换），币种选择往往先从“可快速清算且规模化”的稳定币开始，BTC更多用于对外宣示或特定场景。短期上，投资者可能关注“BTC被用于支付”的情绪溢价，但稳定币主导会压制BTC的直接增量预期。
中长期看，若未来出现可验证的BTC链上支付数据，BTC可能从“战略叙事”升级为“真实使用案例”，对情绪与流动性预期更有支撑；反之若证据长期不足，则该事件对市场稳定性影响仍偏中性，更多体现在风险偏好和监管预期的边际变化上。