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- America Can’t Let Israel Pull It Into a Renewed Iran War
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- Consumer Spending, Engine of the U.S. Economy, Is Under Strain
- The Iran War Has Prompted Some Companies to Raise Prices
- Forever Stamp Prices to Rise 5% This Summer
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Insider info: The White House warns staff against placing bets on Polymarket and Kalshi.
Historic mission: Artemis II crew heads back to earth, with a splashdown expected tonight.
Calls for a truce: Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire - but only temporarily.
Tolls and tokens
The current shipping situation in the Strait of Hormuz is pretty cryptic and is also getting more crypto-esque by the day. The critical waterway was supposed to be fully open to traffic by now, but according to scans of the area, only several tankers have transited the chokepoint. Compounding the problems is that Iran wants to start charging pass-through tolls, which cannot be sanctioned or touched by the Western financial system.
Quote: "Every very large crude carrier (VLCC) transiting the strait has been paying $2M (or $1 per barrel of oil), in line with what has been under discussion in parliament," said Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran's oil, gas, and petrochemical products exporters' union. "Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in bitcoin, ensuring they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions."
It's a similar playbook taken by Russia in recent years to upend dollar supremacy, conducting international trade and cross-border transactions in crypto and other modes of currency. Iran's crypto ecosystem even reached $7.8B in 2025, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Payments have spanned commodities like oil and illicit arms transfers, as well as reaching regional militia proxies and paying foreigners to gather intelligence.
Interesting paradox: The embrace of alternative payment systems hasn't only been celebrated by Washington's adversaries. It goes all the way to the White House. President Trump has promised a new era for digital finance to "ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the world." A similar stance has been present surrounding tolls in Hormuz, where Trump, at times, has pitched a joint U.S.-Iranian collection system, calling it a "beautiful thing," but has also floated the idea of the U.S. alone charging tolls or promoting the "free traffic of oil." (3 comments)
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What else is happening...
Inflation data for February is published. March is on tap for today.
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Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +1.8%. Hong Kong +0.6%. China +0.5%. India +1.2%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.3%. Paris +0.8%. Frankfurt +0.9%.
Futures at 6:30, Dow -0.1%. S&P flat. Nasdaq +0.1%. Crude +0.5% to $98.39. Gold -0.7% to $4,782.50. Bitcoin +0.5% to $71,773.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +1 bp to 4.30%.