PANews reported on April 11 that Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, published a lengthy analysis on the X platform, pointing out that reports of Iran demanding ships pay passage fees in the Strait of Hormuz in Bitcoin have not been fully verified. Previously, the Financial Times reported that Iran planned to charge $1 per barrel of oil and require payment in Bitcoin; however, information from various sources differs. Bloomberg suggests the fees may be settled in stablecoins or the yuan, while research firm Citrini Research indicates some ships have completed payments by unfreezing Iranian overseas assets. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs also stated that there is currently no evidence that cryptocurrencies are being used on a large scale for such passage fee payments.

Alex Thorn believes that if it is true that Bitcoin is used to collect tolls, Bitcoin has certain advantages as a censorship-resistant payment tool. However, the claim that "fast payments can enhance privacy" is inaccurate unless a Layer 2 solution such as the Lightning Network is used. In addition, considering that the scale of a single toll fee may reach $200,000 to $2 million, there are still limitations in the actual operation of large-amount on-chain or Lightning Network payments.

Alex Thorn revealed that Galaxy Research will conduct cross-analysis of ship AIS data and on-chain transactions to determine whether there are corresponding-scale Bitcoin transactions. Overall, while there are historical precedents of Iran using crypto assets for cross-border transactions, the claim of "Bitcoin toll collection" still needs further verification.