Treasury Says Iran Took Bitcoin for Strait of Hormuz ‘Insurance’ That Funded the IRGC

The U.S. Treasury Department says Iran built a maritime insurance operation around a threat it largely created itself.

Ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz were allegedly pushed to buy mandatory coverage against seizure and other dangers tied to the Iranian regime.

The payment options included Bitcoin and other digital assets.

On Wednesday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the two firms at the center of the operation: Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority.

Treasury describes the arrangement as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed extortion scheme that turned access to one of the world’s most important shipping lanes into a revenue source for the regime.

OFAC announced the action publicly as it moved against the companies and eight additional vessels connected to Iran’s shadow fleet.

Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two firms integral to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-backed extortion scheme that forces commercial vessels to purchase mandatory maritime “insurance” to transit the Strait of Hormuz.  Although this coverage…

— Treasury Department (@USTreasury) July 29, 2026

The crypto detail is unusually direct.

Governments often warn that sanctioned actors may use digital assets. In this case, Treasury identified a named Iranian platform, the service it sold, the chokepoint where it operated and the regime organization it allegedly financed.

Hormuz Safe advertised insurance, traffic control, security and emergency response for commercial vessels traveling through the strait.

Treasury says Iran’s Ministry of Economy developed the platform and that it accepted Bitcoin and other digital assets to bypass Western sanctions.

The insurance was not presented as a voluntary Bitcoin experiment for shipping companies.

According to OFAC, the scheme forced vessels to purchase IRGC-approved policies before making routine commercial passages. The coverage purported to protect ships from seizures and other risks that Treasury says Iran overwhelmingly created.

That makes the structure closer to a digital toll booth backed by state power than a normal insurance product.

The U.S. Treasury Department says Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company brokered and issued policies approved by the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, an IRGC-backed body sanctioned in May. Hormuz Safe generated revenue for the IRGC while giving the regime tighter control over shipping activity.

Iranian financier Babak Morteza Zanjani, whom the United States sanctioned earlier this year, also promoted the service to his social-media followers.

The two insurance firms were designated for operating in Iran’s financial sector under Executive Order 13902.

OFAC’s action blocks property and interests in property that fall within U.S. jurisdiction. Entities owned 50% or more by designated parties are also blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from doing business with them unless authorized.

The warning reaches beyond American companies.

Foreign financial institutions and other businesses can face sanctions exposure when they facilitate transactions for blocked persons. That risk now applies to firms that knowingly help process payments or provide services tied to the two designated insurance companies.

For exchanges, custodians, payment processors and blockchain analytics firms, the notice creates an immediate compliance problem.

Bitcoin transactions are public, but a payment address does not announce its owner. Service providers will need reliable wallet identification, transaction screening and counterparty controls to keep the scheme from moving through regulated platforms.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the action as a defense of global commerce, not a narrow dispute over cryptocurrency.

With its economy in freefall and inflation in the triple digits, the regime is desperate for cash. The United States will not allow Iran to hold global commerce hostage or use international shipping to finance the IRGC’s terrorism, aggression, and repression. https://t.co/J1GsCb79e6

— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) July 29, 2026

The strait carries enormous strategic weight because it connects Persian Gulf producers with global markets.

Iran does not need to shut the passage completely to create leverage. The threat of seizures, attacks or delays can raise insurance costs, disrupt schedules and pressure companies into arrangements they would never accept in an ordinary market.

Bitcoin gave Hormuz Safe another collection rail when banks and dollar payment systems were unavailable or too easy to block.

That does not make Bitcoin responsible for the alleged coercion. Cash, shell companies, tankers and conventional trade networks remain central to sanctions evasion.

Treasury’s same action covered eight vessels and eight shipping companies accused of moving millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products.

The digital-asset component matters because it shows how a state-backed operation can combine physical control with borderless settlement.

Cointelegraph reports that Hormuz Safe had been promoted as a Bitcoin-based maritime insurance option before the sanctions. The new OFAC designation turns that earlier pitch into a concrete compliance risk: businesses dealing with the platform may now expose themselves to blocked-property rules and sanctions penalties, while transactions routed through overseas exchanges can become part of the enforcement trail.

The enforcement challenge will be identifying the wallets and intermediaries that connect the public blockchain to the sanctioned companies.

OFAC did not list a Bitcoin address in the public release. That leaves exchanges and analytics providers to watch for later address designations, law-enforcement intelligence and transaction patterns tied to Hormuz Safe or Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company.

The United States has used that playbook before against mixers, exchanges, ransomware operators and sanctions-evasion networks.

This case adds a different model: cryptocurrency used inside a state-backed maritime pressure campaign.

Iran tried to turn danger in the Strait of Hormuz into a paid service and Bitcoin into one of the collection methods.

Treasury’s response is designed to make every company touching that payment chain choose between access to the regulated financial system and business with the IRGC-backed operation.

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