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Iran is demanding cryptocurrency payments from shipping companies for oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz during the two-week ceasefire announced by Donald Trump – as the terms of the deal expose, in stark detail, that the US president has effectively handed Iran everything it wanted in exchange for reopening a waterway that was fully open before his administration started bombing.
The ceasefire, brokered via Pakistan and announced by Trump on Truth Social, has been greeted with cautious relief by markets and shipping companies still digesting what the conditions for transit will actually mean in practice. The answer, so far, is that ships must email Iranian authorities, wait for assessment, and then pay in Bitcoin within seconds – while Iran retains effective control over the world’s most important oil shipping lane.
The ceasefire terms
Trump announced the two-week ceasefire in characteristic style, posting on Truth Social that he agreed “to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” and describing it as a “double sided CEASEFIRE!” He said the agreement had come following discussions with Pakistani leadership, and described the ten-point Iranian peace plan as “a workable basis on which to negotiate,” adding that “almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran.”
Iranian state media subsequently outlined the key points of the plan – and the picture they paint is striking.
The conditions include the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, allowing Iran continued control over the Strait of Hormuz and establishing rules for safe passage under Iranian supervision, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the right for Iran and Oman to charge a fee of up to $2 million per ship transiting the strait – with the proceeds used to fund reconstruction in Iran.
The ceasefire is contingent on Iran agreeing to allow traffic through the Strait – which, as Trump put it, required Iran’s “COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING” of the waterway. The Strait of Hormuz was completely open and functioning normally before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.
The Bitcoin demand
Within hours of the ceasefire announcement, the Financial Times reported the specific mechanism by which Iran intends to manage Hormuz transit – and it involves cryptocurrency.
Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the FT that each tanker wishing to pass must email Iranian authorities about its cargo. Iran will then assess the vessel and inform it of the toll to be paid in digital currencies.
“Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons,” Hosseini said. “Everything can pass through, but the procedure will take time for each vessel, and Iran is not in a rush.”
The tariff is set at $1 per barrel of oil. Empty tankers can pass freely. 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.
Tankers in the Gulf also received an English-language radio broadcast on Wednesday warning they would be targeted with military strikes unless they first gained approval from Iranian authorities. “If any vessels try to transit without permission, they will be destroyed,” the broadcast said, according to a recording shared with the FT.
Since the ceasefire announcement, the price of Bitcoin surged by almost £1,300 as markets absorbed the implications of Iran’s demands.
The scale of the shipping backlog
The practical challenge of clearing the backlog of vessels waiting to transit is enormous. Around 175 million barrels of crude and refined products are currently loaded onto 187 tankers in the Gulf, according to data from Kpler. Industry executives estimate 300 to 400 ships are waiting to exit as soon as safe transit is possible – with one describing the situation as a “car park.”
Martin Kelly, head of advisory at maritime intelligence group EOS Risk, said there was “no way” the backlog could be cleared in two weeks. He estimated only 10 to 15 ships might be able to transit the strait per day under Iran’s new assessment procedure, compared with 135 ships per day before the war began.
Maersk, the world’s second largest shipping line, said it was “working with urgency” to clarify the terms of transit but was maintaining a “cautious approach” and was not yet making changes to specific services. “The ceasefire may create transit opportunities, but it does not yet provide full maritime certainty,” the company said.
The systemic impact on global oil and shipping markets will take weeks to unwind even in the most optimistic scenario – and the two-week ceasefire window may not be sufficient to clear even a fraction of the waiting vessels.
What Iran has retained – and what it has gained
The terms of the deal as they have emerged raise a fundamental question about the purpose of the war. Iran has secured continued control over the Strait of Hormuz, a new tolling regime that will generate revenue from every oil tanker that passes, sanctions relief, the release of frozen assets, and international recognition of its right to monitor and approve transit. The ceasefire also appears to acknowledge Iran’s ten-point peace framework as “a workable basis for negotiation.”
The fate of transit through the strait is one of the thorniest issues facing negotiators as they try to turn a temporary ceasefire into a prolonged peace, with Iran’s desire to retain leverage over the key waterway clashing with fierce opposition from US allies in the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia has made its position clear. Ali Shihabi, a commentator close to the Saudi royal court, said: “Allowing Iran any form of control over the strait would be a red line. The priority has to be unimpeded access through the strait.” On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s key East-West pipeline – which the kingdom has been using to reroute oil exports to the Red Sea – was struck by a drone despite the ceasefire, underscoring the fragility of the current arrangement.
The situation also raises questions for Opec+, the oil producers’ group, with analysts warning that handing Iran control of Hormuz could fundamentally alter the balance of power within the organisation by giving Tehran a potential veto over rival members’ exports.
The uncomfortable arithmetic of the war
The ceasefire terms have prompted a wave of commentary pointing out the obvious: that the United States has spent over $25 billion, lost at least 13 military personnel, seen oil prices surge to $116 a barrel, triggered a global energy crisis, compared its Prime Minister to Neville Chamberlain, threatened the Vatican with military force, and driven Britain back towards the EU – all in order to end up in roughly the same position as before the war began, except with Iran now controlling the Strait of Hormuz and charging Bitcoin tolls for passage through it.
The Strait of Hormuz was open on 27 February 2026. It was closed on 28 February when the US and Israel launched their strikes. The ceasefire agreement, if it holds, will see it reopen – under Iranian control, with Iranian tolls, paid in untraceable cryptocurrency, following a war that by any measurable outcome has strengthened Iran’s strategic position rather than weakened it.
For Britain, which has spent six weeks being publicly humiliated by Trump for insufficient enthusiasm about the conflict, the ceasefire terms will prompt hard questions about what exactly was gained from the pressure to be more involved.
What happens next
The two-week ceasefire window is widely regarded as insufficient to resolve the fundamental questions around Hormuz’s future status. The US demands complete and immediate opening. Iran insists on retaining supervisory control. Gulf states will not accept any arrangement that gives Tehran a veto over their oil exports. The ceasefire creates a window for negotiation – but the gap between the parties’ positions on the central question remains wide.
Whether the window holds, whether the Bitcoin tolling mechanism proves workable in practice, whether Gulf states and western shipping companies will accept the conditions Iran is imposing, and whether the ten-point Iranian peace plan forms the basis for a lasting agreement – all of these remain open questions.
What is already settled is that the war achieved none of its stated aims in the timeframe its architects had envisaged, at enormous cost to the global economy, and has ended – at least temporarily – with Iran controlling the world’s most important oil chokepoint and demanding payment in cryptocurrency.
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