The Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately 20% of the world's seaborne oil shipments pass, has long been a high-tension chokepoint. In late March 2026, Iranian authorities reportedly floated the concept of charging crypto-denominated transit fees as a means of circumventing dollar-denominated sanctions. Within 72 hours, scam operators were already in the field.

According to Marisks, shipowners and operators began receiving messages through encrypted channels, claiming to originate from Iranian Coast Guard or IRGC personnel, demanding bitcoin or Tether (USDT) deposits to specified wallet addresses prior to entering the strait. The scam messages were sophisticated — using official-looking letterhead, vessel-specific identifiers (likely scraped from public AIS data), and threats of "interception" for non-payment.

Marisks confirmed at least one shipowner paid before the scam was identified. The Bureau's Cross-Chain Tracing Specialists, in coordinated parallel response with Greek maritime authorities, traced the recipient wallets through multiple chain hops before the funds reached a known mixer.

The Bureau's preliminary assessment is that the actual Iranian government — whatever its actual position on crypto-denominated transit fees — is not the entity collecting these payments. The operation appears to be opportunistic third-party fraud exploiting the publicity around Iran's policy floats.

"The lesson here is straightforward," said a senior Bureau analyst. "If a state actor wants to collect tolls, they're going to invoice you through actual diplomatic channels. They're not going to DM you on Signal and demand you send USDT to a wallet that was deployed yesterday."

Maritime operators are advised to verify all transit-fee demands through their flag-state's diplomatic channels and to immediately report scam attempts to Marisks, Lloyd's, or comparable maritime risk-management bodies.