Iran has announced it intends to offer insurance for ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz using Bitcoin.
Fars News Agency and Iran’s Ministry of Economy state that the system provides cryptographically verifiable insurance policies. By using Bitcoin, Iran aims to circumvent the many sanctions imposed on the country.
According to Al Jazeera, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) was created to manage the passage of ships in the Strait, which remains a risky voyage.
The project is predicted to generate over $10 billion in revenue for Iran.
Vikrant Sharma, CEO of Cake Wallet, is skeptical about the efficacy and effectiveness of such a Bitcoin-oriented project.
“I’d treat the claim as technically plausible but operationally difficult. Bitcoin can settle value across borders, so in theory it could be used for premiums or claims tied to maritime cargo insurance. But a working insurance platform requires much more than payment settlement: underwriting, claims validation, counterparties, reinsurance, vessel documentation and credible participants willing to take the other side,” said Sharma.
He commented on sanctions, noting that Bitcoin can reduce some of the payment friction, but it is not necessarily a route around the system.
“Liquidity at meaningful maritime-insurance scale is a constraint, public-chain activity can be monitored, and any exchange, broker, custodian, insurer or dollar-linked counterparty creates compliance risk. So Bitcoin could be part of an attempted workaround, especially for smaller or isolated payments, but it does not remove the core sanctions problem. Larger flows would still be hard to normalize and could be easier to trace than people assume.”
Meanwhile, most military engagements by the US and Iran are on hold as the Trump administration seeks to balance a policy that eliminates nuclear capabilities without too much pushback from domestic politicians and the electorate.
