Bitcoin’s Week of Geopolitical and Legislative Fireworks: From Hormuz Tolls to the CLARITY Act

Together, the developments paint a picture of a maturing asset class being pulled simultaneously into two very different arenas: sovereign brinkmanship and congressional horse-trading.

Bitcoin as a sanctions-resistant toll booth

The more dramatic storyline emerged from the Middle East, where a Financial Times report revealed that Iran is exploring the use of Bitcoin for transit fees levied on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway handles roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil supply, and Tehran has tightened its grip on the passage following a 39-day conflict with the United States and a fragile ceasefire.

Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told the Financial Times that vessels could be given seconds to complete a BTC payment once approved for transit. The speed requirement suggests the payments might be routed through the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution that enables near-instant transactions.

The crypto community has been dissecting the feasibility of such a system. Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy, noted that conflicting reports suggest tolls may also be payable in Chinese yuan or stablecoins, and that his firm is monitoring onchain activity for evidence of tanker-related BTC transactions. Thorn estimated individual tolls could range from US$200,000 to US$2 million per vessel, and suggested Iranian authorities would most likely provide a QR code or alphanumeric Bitcoin address rather than rely on Lightning for sums that large. The largest known Lightning transaction to date has been approximately US$1 million.

BTC advocate Justin Bechler argued that Bitcoin’s structural properties make it the logical choice over stablecoins for a sanctioned state. He pointed out that both USDT and USDC feature built-in blacklist functions at the smart contract level, allowing issuers to freeze tokens at any address flagged by authorities. The recently signed GENIUS Act reinforces those compliance controls, making dollar-pegged stablecoins a poor fit for a government trying to evade US financial pressure.

Iran’s interest in crypto as a tool of statecraft is not new. The country has quietly built one of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining operations, ranking fifth globally by hash rate, and crypto outflows from Iran surged to US$4.18 billion in 2024 as citizens and institutions alike sought to move capital beyond the reach of the weakening rial. But using Bitcoin to toll one of the planet’s most strategically important shipping lanes would represent an entirely new chapter — one where BTC functions not as a speculative instrument or a remittance rail, but as a sovereign revenue mechanism embedded in hard geopolitics.

If implemented, the move would bolster the case made by Bitcoin maximalists that the network can serve as a neutral settlement layer for international transactions — a monetary Switzerland with no issuer, no compliance officer, and no freeze function.

Armstrong flips on the CLARITY Act

While Bitcoin was being discussed as a tool of geopolitical leverage in the Persian Gulf, back in Washington the legislative machinery around crypto market structure lurched forward.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X that it was time for Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, endorsing comments made by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a Wall Street Journal op-ed urging lawmakers to act. Armstrong called the current version of the legislation a “strong bill” — a notable reversal from January, when he withdrew Coinbase’s support and said the company could not back the bill “as written.”

Grateful for all the bipartisan work among Senators and staff over the past several months to make this a strong bill, said Armstrong on X

That earlier objection led the Senate Banking Committee to postpone a crucial markup session, and months of negotiations between lawmakers, crypto firms, and the banking industry followed. Sticking points included the treatment of tokenised equities, stablecoin yield provisions, and broader ethics concerns. Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said last week that lawmakers were now very close to reaching a deal.

The CLARITY Act aims to draw a definitive line between crypto assets that fall under Securities and Exchange Commission jurisdiction and those regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Senate Agriculture Committee approved its portion of the bill back in January, but the Banking Committee markup — which addresses the securities side — has yet to be scheduled.

Armstrong’s about-face likely reflects both the concessions negotiators have made and the growing political momentum behind crypto legislation under the Trump administration. The relationships between crypto executives and the White House appear to be bearing fruit. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently approved Coinbase’s application for a national bank trust charter, following similar approvals for Paxos, Ripple Labs, BitGo, Circle, and Fidelity Digital Assets. Armstrong reportedly met with the president before Trump posted a social media message calling for immediate action on market structure.

The passage of the CLARITY Act, together with the already signed GENIUS Act governing stablecoins, would represent the most comprehensive federal crypto regulatory framework the US has ever had. Analysts view clear rules as a prerequisite for meaningful institutional adoption, particularly from banks and traditional asset managers that have remained cautious amid regulatory uncertainty.

Two sides of the same Bitcoin story

The week’s twin narratives may seem disconnected, but they are driven by the same underlying dynamic: Bitcoin’s unique properties — censorship resistance, borderlessness, and the absence of a central issuer — make it useful to actors across the geopolitical spectrum, from sanctioned states seeking economic autonomy to publicly listed US companies lobbying for regulatory clarity.

For Iran, Bitcoin offers a way to monetise strategic leverage without touching the dollar system. For Coinbase, a well-regulated Bitcoin market offers the foundation for a multi-billion-dollar compliant financial services business. Both stories will continue to evolve in the weeks ahead, as ceasefire negotiations progress in the Middle East and Senate committee markups inch closer in Washington. Either way, Bitcoin sits squarely at the centre.