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At Build to Last 2026, Saint-Gobain Vietnam announced it has achieved “Zero Carbon” manufacturing for its DURAflex fiber cement sheet plant in Quảng Trị, with no carbon emissions for Scope 1 and Scope 2. The company said it is the first in its industry to reach this milestone. The Zero…
Jim Rickards, who has worked for decades at the intersection of intelligence, finance, and geopolitical strategy, said this week that Iran’s reported use of cryptocurrency to collect a toll from oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz could involve multiple digital assets, including Bitcoin, Tether, or Ripple.
Rickards’ comments came while discussing breaking news reported by the Financial Times that Iran has begun charging vessels a toll to transit the Strait of Hormuz, with payment demanded in cryptocurrency. The original report did not specify which cryptocurrency would be used.
In response, Rickards said the toll could be paid in “Bitcoin,” “Tether,” or “Ripple,” naming the three as plausible settlement media for sovereign energy transactions.
Rickards’ analysis emphasized that even if the toll is paid in cryptocurrency, the underlying pricing remains dollar-denominated. He argued that a toll set at “one dollar per barrel of oil” is still a dollar-based transaction, with settlement occurring via crypto rather than representing a break from the dollar system.
“You can hit on the dollar but you can’t get away from it,” he said. “Cryptocurrencies have a dollar equivalent. So you’re always back to the dollar no matter how hard people try to get away from it.”
Rickards also focused on Tether, noting that the largest stablecoin by market capitalization counts Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, as a significant investor. He suggested that if Iran were to settle oil tolls in Tether, it would mean using an instrument with direct ties to the US government it is seeking to circumvent.
“Iran is going to use Tether? They’re going to charge a toll on the oil in Tether?” he said.
Supporters of Ripple argue that XRP and the XRP Ledger are designed for fast, low-cost cross-border settlement between institutional counterparties, with transactions settling in three to five seconds. They also cite that the network has over 300 financial institutions using its payment infrastructure.
Rickards did not claim that Iran is definitively using Ripple; his remarks were framed as speculation based on the question of what could replace dollar-denominated oil settlement. Still, the fact that he pointed to Ripple as a natural candidate in that context was presented as a notable data point.
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