Brought to you by Lygos Finance.
Happy Friday!
The Financial Times turned heads this week in bitcoin circles and without, and it wasn’t for yet another poorly-researched, anti-BTC screed. The outlet reported that Iran would allow oil tankers to exit the Strait of Hormuz — provided they pay a duty in bitcoin first.
The development is one of the most consequential — if not the most — yet from a nation state vis-a-vis bitcoin adoption. And if you know anything about Iran’s relationship to orange coin, it’s hardly a surprise.
Plus, a bonus Blockspace Podcast with Keel (formerly Bitfarms) CEO Ben Gagnon and a new bitcoin ETF enters the market.
We are less than one week away from OPNEXT in NYC!
The Times Center in New York, New York April 16th
Elizabeth Stark, Robin Linus, and many other top developers!
Use code NEWSLETTER for 20% off a GA ticket
Includes breakfast, lunch, and access to PubKey afterparty
Join our afterparty or Investor Brunch by signing up here
Hedge funds are getting liquidated. Is your BTC safe?
It’s not just Bitcoin price drying up. Big whales, hedge funds, and lending desks are going under after the notorious 10/10 and 2/5 liquidations.
Counterparty risk is rampant, so its more important than ever to understand who actually controls your Bitcoin. Don’t be the next FTX or Celsius victim.
If you are working with another loan provider, do yourself a favor before its to late and check out Lygos Finance, Blockspace’s preferred non-custodial Bitcoin lender using native Bitcoin smart contracts to protect your stack.
With Lygos, you always know where your Bitcoin is. Hold your keys, no wrapping, no bridging, no rehypothecation. Get competitive rates as low as 10% APR
Click the banner to learn more about Lygos!
Understanding Iran's complicated relationship with bitcoin
Shortly after Iran and the U.S. agreed to a two-week ceasefire, Iranian officials reportedly agreed to let oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz – if the crews pay a toll in bitcoin.
The Financial Times broke the news, quoting Hamid Hosseini of Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union.
“Iran needs to monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons,” Hosseini told FT. “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.”
The going rate is $1 per barrel of oil, meaning a supertanker would have to cough up $2 million to pass through. The Financial Times, citing data from Kpler, said that there are some 175 million barrels of crude oil marooned on 187 tankers in the Strait. This would make for a cool $175 million payday for Iran.
Roughly 20% of the world’s oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, per EIA data, which works out to about 7.3 billion barrels annually. So if Iran continues this policy and tankers actually pay, that’s $7.3 billion (or 2% of the country’s GDP) per year in Iran’s coffers.
For the layman who might have trouble picking out Iran on a map, this all very likely puzzling. For Bitcoiners, it might come as less of a shock, but the more in-the-know ones might also remember that Iran temporarily banned bitcoin mining five years ago.
This contradiction – that a nation seemingly hostile to bitcoin would also accept it for export duties in arguably the most salient example of nation state bitcoin adoption yet – exposes a messy truth: Iran, a nation yoked by a theocratic dictatorship, is a bitcoin country.
In the News
Get even more stories by joining our Telegram chat!
Morgan Stanley debuts bitcoin ETF amid market decline
Morgan Stanley will debut its own bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) Wednesday on the NYSE Arca exchange under the ticker MSBT. The New York-based firm is set to become the first major Wall Street bank to launch a bitcoin-tracking fund.- link
Bitdeer launches SEALMINER A4 series with sub-10 J/TH efficiency
Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) announced the launched of its next generation Bitcoin mining series, the SEALMINER A4, on Tuesday. The Singapore-based company stated the new hardware utilizes its proprietary SEAL04 chip, achieving a headline power efficiency of 13.5 J/TH. - link
Strategy acquires 4,871 bitcoin for $329.9 million
Strategy Inc disclosed Monday the acquisition of 4,871 bitcoin for an aggregate purchase price of $329.9 million. - link
Solo bitcoin miner wins $222K payday with “1 in 100,000 chance” luck
Yet another solo bitcoin miner has struck digital gold, winning a bitcoin block with only 70 TH/s of mining power and claiming a payout of 3.128 BTC worth an estimated $222,000. - link
Blockspace
Catch Blockspace LIVE 3x per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 12 pm ET/ 9 am PST. We cover all the news of the last 48 hours, plus guest segments from big names in the Bitcoin and AI space!
In a bonus episode this week for the Blockspace Podcast, Ben Gagnon, CEO of Keel Infrastructure, joins us to talk about the company's rebranding from Bitfarms and its transition from bitcoin mining to AI and HPC infrastructure. We dive into the complexities of re-domiciling from Canada to the U.S., Keel’s decision to liquidate its bitcoin holdings throughout 2026, and how the company is securing power permits in high-barrier markets like Pennsylvania and Washington.
On the latest Blockspace Podcast, Antoine Poinsot of Chaincode Labs joins us to discuss how the Great Consensus Cleanup addresses poison block attacks (among many things), and Lygos Finance CEO Jay Patel gives a breakdown of the current state of private credit markets. For news, we cover Iran demanding bitcoin tolls for tankers to navigate the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran War’s two week ceasefire, Morgan Stanley becoming the first US bank to offer a Bitcoin ETF, and Bitdeer’s new ASIC. Plus, we take to task the New York Times' latest claim that Adam Back is Satoshi Nakamoto.
On this day in 1925, Scribner’s Sons publishes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel, The Great Gatsby.
-CBS, CMH
Enjoyed today's read?
Header image by RuinDig/Yuki Uchida via Creative Commons.