An Iranian parliamentarian disclosed on Sunday 7 June, to IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)-affiliated media, an official charge of $1.5 to $2 million per ship for passage through the strait of Hormuz, paid in barter goods and cryptocurrency1. The on-the-record confirmation and the named payment channel are the new elements; the charge had carried no acknowledged price before.
Goods and crypto settle outside the dollar-clearing system that OFAC (the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanctions reach. OFAC has designated Iranian crypto exchanges, yet the toll disclosure shows a goods-and-crypto rail still operating at scale. That finance mechanism, not the charge itself, is why much of the traffic pays rather than runs the US blockade.
CENTCOM (US Central Command) has redirected 127 vessels and disabled six; the ships not on that list are, in many cases, the ones quietly paying. The operational toll system has been reported since March; the parliamentary confirmation and the hard figure attached to it are the new beat.
This is the IRGC as revenue collector, a separate operation from the corps as missile force. The same guard that put 10 ballistic missiles onto Ramat David on Sunday is banking Hormuz transit fees in stablecoins on the same day.
