Is Iran Arming Itself with Bitcoin While the US Military is Just Reading Wikipedia?

▲ Is Iran Arming Itself with Bitcoin While the US Military is Just Reading Wikipedia?/AI-generated image

While Iran declares it will accept Bitcoin (BTC) for Strait of Hormuz passage fees, weaponizing cryptocurrency, the very US military leadership that should be countering this has shown a subpar understanding of Bitcoin, drawing strong criticism from the virtual asset community.

According to crypto media outlet Bitcoinist on April 26 (local time), Iran, which controls the Strait of Hormuz through which approximately 20% of the world's oil supply passes, recently officially adopted Bitcoin as a payment method for ship passage fees, alongside Chinese Yuan and dollar-pegged stablecoins. Officials from the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) analyzed that while Iran prefers stablecoins, it is strategically utilizing Bitcoin because, unlike stablecoins whose funds can be frozen by issuers, Bitcoin possesses perfect censorship resistance that no one can control or block.

Sam Lyman, Director of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, emphasized that this situation is the most important example demonstrating Bitcoin's emergence as a clear geopolitical strategic asset. Data showing that transactions related to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps account for nearly half of the total cryptocurrency market volume within Iran proves that the Iranian government and military are already utilizing the Bitcoin network very actively and purposefully.

In such an urgent situation where an adversary is weaponizing Bitcoin, the testimony of a US Navy admiral in Congress caused great disappointment in the market. Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, stated in the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the US government operates Bitcoin nodes, describing Bitcoin as a combination of cryptography, blockchain, and proof-of-work, as well as a computer science tool and a means of power projection.

However, the virtual asset community harshly criticized his remarks as being no more than simply reading from Wikipedia. Crypto educator Matthew Kratter directly slammed Admiral Paparo and Senator Tommy Tuberville, stating that both did not even understand what they were talking about, and their conversation was nothing but empty nonsense. Journalist Lola Ritz also dismissed the testimony as mere rambling.

This sharp criticism from the community stems from a fundamental sense of crisis. If Iran is wielding cryptocurrency as a practical weapon in the Strait of Hormuz, and the US military leadership remains at a superficial level of understanding, talking about "computer science tools," serious questions are being raised about whether they can properly control and utilize Bitcoin's strategic value from a national security perspective.

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