Reports said Iran approved a late-March law to charge oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz a $1-per-barrel transit fee, with payment options reportedly including Bitcoin, Tether’s USDT, and Chinese yuan, though no official legal text, approving body, or implementation details were provided. Marisks later reported that scammers impersonated Iranian officials and demanded Bitcoin or USDT from tankers within two weeks of the reported announcement, and said at least one tanker that paid a fake toll was later fired on by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on April 18. Mercuria Energy Trading’s shipping chief warned on April 22 that such a fee would set a dangerous precedent for global trade amid heightened regional shipping tensions. TRM Labs and Chainalysis said they found no evidence of large-scale cryptocurrency toll payments, indicating that while at least one vessel may have paid a fraudulent demand, broader on-chain payment activity has not been substantiated.