Iran demands $1 per barrel of oil passing through Strait of Hormuz, paid in crypto

Iran will require ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz to pay the cryptocurrency equivalent of $1 per barrel of oil on board during the two-week ceasefire with the U.S, a key figure told the Financial Times.

Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, which works with Iran’s government, told the Financial Times about the requirement on Wednesday.

He said that it will cost $1 per barrel of oil and that ships need to email Iranian authorities about what they are carrying.

“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 told the newspaper.

He added that the measures are being put in place to make sure weapons are not carried through the strait. 

“Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush,” he said.

The Strait of Hormuz is a key oil shipping lane off Iran’s coast. Since the start of the war, it has effectively been closed. This has sent oil prices surging — since previously, about a fifth of the world’s oil was flowing through the strait — and sent the global economy into a tailspin.

An extra dollar per barrel is a relatively small fraction of a barrel of oil’s price.

President Trump on Tuesday evening announced that he would suspend attacks on Iran. Oil prices have fallen in the wake of that announcement.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran could open the strait in a way that is “limited, under ‌Iran’s ⁠control,” on Thursday or Friday before a meeting with U.S. officials.

The Wall Street Journal reported, meanwhile, that Iran was telling mediators that it would both charge tolls and limit the number of ships passing through the strait to about 12 per day.

Trump on Wednesday said he is considering the formation of a “joint venture” with Iran to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture,” the president told ABC News’s Jonathan Karl. “It’s a way of securing it — also securing it from lots of other people. It’s a beautiful thing.”

During the conflict, Iran was allowing a few, limited ships to pass through the strait under a “tollbooth” system. The number of ships previously passing through the strait was not considered significant enough to defray supply and price concerns caused by its effective closure.

Earlier in the week, as Trump upped his threats on Iran, he also suggested the U.S. could set up its own tolling system for ships that pass through. 

Updated at 5:06 p.m. EDT.