Scammers demand BTC and USDT for 'safe passage' through Hormuz

Maritime risk firm Marisks has warned that scammers posing as Iranian authorities are contacting ships stranded by the Hormuz blockade and demanding payment in bitcoin or USDT for “safe passage” through the Strait. At least one vessel may have paid. War closes the world’s most important shipping lane, and within weeks crypto is both the ransom currency and the escape rail. Bitcoin was designed for a world without trusted intermediaries. It’s finding that world faster than anyone expected — and not always in ways Satoshi imagined.