When Iran formally announced priority for paying vessels on 19 April 2026, the system being formalised was not new. It had been operating for weeks. Over the seven days preceding that announcement, named vessels with identifiable cargos and flags successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz. Each one did so by paying Iran under the protocol that has now been codified. Here is what the public record shows.
The legislative backing
Iran’s parliament passed the Strait of Hormuz Management Plan on 30 and 31 March 2026. The plan codifies the transit protocol, data submission requirements, and fee structure under Iranian domestic law. Every collection observed in April occurs under the authority of this statute. The 19 April announcement is an operational rule under the plan, not an independent measure.
Named vessels that transited the week ending 19 April
Between 12 April and 19 April, at least the following named vessels completed transits of the Strait of Hormuz under IRGC controlled routing. Each transit was recorded in public ship tracking data. Each required IRGC clearance to complete. Each is therefore documentary evidence that payment and protocol compliance were executed, because no other transit path exists in the current operating environment.
Serifos, a Liberia flagged Very Large Crude Carrier, cleared the strait on 12 April during the brief window when the 8 April ceasefire was nominally holding.
Cospearl Lake and He Rong Hai, both China flagged VLCCs, cleared the strait on the same day.
Kashan, Rayan, Daisy, and Golbon, four Iranian flagged merchant vessels, transited on 14 April per LSEG ship tracking data reported by The National.
Rich Starry, a medium range tanker that is Chinese owned and US sanctioned, transited on 14 April and was the first ship to complete passage after the US blockade of Iranian ports began on Monday evening. It later reversed course.
Atokos, a Greek owned Very Large Crude Carrier with capacity of approximately 2 million barrels, was identified by Bloomberg on 17 April as the largest tanker a Western shipowner had sent through the strait since the war began. A VLCC of this size does not transit the current Hormuz Tollbooth environment without IRGC clearance.
G Summer, a liquefied petroleum gas carrier, and Hong Lu, a crude carrier, both used evasive routing via the waters around Larak and Qeshm islands during the window. The evasive routing pattern has been tied in reporting to fee negotiation processes under the Tollbooth.
At least nine named vessel transits in a seven day window, in a waterway where the daily baseline has collapsed to approximately 14 transits, is a substantial evidentiary footprint.
The fee structure actually applied
Multiple independent sources between 12 April and 19 April reported the same pricing structure, which suggests the numbers are consistent across transactions rather than varying by vessel or circumstance.
The headline fee is up to 2 million US dollars per vessel. Bloomberg, House of Saud, US News explainer coverage, and Kashmir Observer all reported the same ceiling over this window. The alternative structure is 0.50 to 1 US dollars per barrel of crude carried. Applied to a fully loaded VLCC of 2 million barrels, the per barrel rate produces approximately the 2 million dollar figure, confirming internal consistency across the reporting.
Payment channels confirmed in reporting across the week: Chinese yuan routed through Kunlun Bank on China’s CIPS network (outside SWIFT), Bitcoin, and the stablecoin USDT. Iranian state media has pointed to Bitcoin, while Western shipping industry sources describe USDT as more commonly used in practice. Both are documented.
The Bloomberg confirmation
Bloomberg’s 1 April report that at least two vessels had completed yuan denominated payments remains the cleanest public confirmation that payments are actually moving, as opposed to being policy that might not be practised. Every week of subsequent reporting through 19 April has been consistent with those payments continuing and scaling, and the operational picture described by the industry sources is one of a processing system handling multiple transits per day rather than handling isolated exceptional cases.
What blockchain analytics firms have NOT yet confirmed
This is an important caveat. Chainalysis and TRM Labs both published on the Iran Hormuz crypto toll mechanism during April. Neither has released specific wallet addresses, transaction hashes, or traced cumulative USD equivalent values of crypto collected on the blockchain. Their analyses are predictive, explaining why the mechanism fits Iran’s historical sanctions evasion pattern, rather than forensic.
TRM Labs explicitly noted that the unnamed intermediary administering toll collection remains publicly unidentified, which they called a critical gap for any future enforcement. Chainalysis stated that stablecoins would ultimately be the preferred instrument, framing the analysis as forward looking inference rather than confirmation of logged transactions.
This gap matters for sanctions attribution and eventual enforcement. It does not affect the operational evidence that payments are being made. A vessel transiting a closed waterway under IRGC escort has completed payment under the only mechanism by which transit is possible. The operational proof stands on its own.
Revenue potential
Publicly estimated revenue potential at current traffic levels is up to 20 million US dollars per day from oil tankers alone. Including liquefied natural gas vessels in the paying universe raises the estimate to 600 to 800 million US dollars per month. These are not confirmed collections. They describe the scale of the commercial activity now running through an unaccountable, unilateral, wartime tolling system.
Seven day summary
- 30 to 31 March. Iran parliament passes Strait of Hormuz Management Plan, codifying tolls and protocol.
- 1 April. Bloomberg confirms first two yuan denominated toll payments.
- 12 April. IMO Secretary General publicly rejects the tolls. Serifos, Cospearl Lake, and He Rong Hai transit the strait.
- 13 April. US naval blockade of Iranian ports begins, creating the double blockade environment.
- 14 April. Iranian flagged vessels Kashan, Rayan, Daisy, and Golbon transit. Rich Starry becomes the first post blockade transit.
- 17 April. Macron and Starmer host the Paris initiative on multilateral escort. Bloomberg reports Greek owned VLCC Atokos transit through Hormuz during the ceasefire.
- 18 April. IRGC fires on commercial vessels, including two Indian flagged ships. Iran’s top security body reasserts strict control.
- 19 April. Iran formally announces the priority for payment rule under the Management Plan.
What the evidence demonstrates
Three points stand out from the seven day record.
The Hormuz Tollbooth is not speculative. Named vessels with identifiable flags, cargos, and owners have transited under the system. The operational architecture functions.
The system is scaling. Bloomberg’s confirmation of two yuan payments on 1 April has given way, in the subsequent three weeks, to at least nine named vessel transits in the single seven day window ending 19 April. The pace is consistent with a processing system handling multiple transits per day, not an exceptional arrangement for a few edge cases.
The legal questions are now detached from the operational questions. Whether Iran’s tolls are legal under UNCLOS is a matter for the IMO, international courts, and diplomatic pressure. Whether the tolls are collectable is an empirical question that the past seven days have answered in the affirmative.
The Paris initiative’s job is to ensure that the future form of Hormuz tolling is not the IRGC run system the last seven days have documented. The site’s calculator, rate schedule, and Suez and Panama comparison describe the alternative. The gap between those two futures is the institutional work of the next ninety days.
Sources: Bloomberg, Strait of Hormuz: Ships Paying Iran Yuan and Crypto Tolls For Safe Passage (1 April 2026) and Greek Shipowner Sends Biggest Oil Tanker Yet Through Hormuz (17 April 2026); Bloomberg, Tehran Charges Some Ships Hormuz Transit Fees for Safe Passage (24 March 2026); NBC News on the Hormuz Tollbooth; NPR on Iran fees for strait passage (3 April 2026); Coindesk on the crypto toll mechanism (8 and 9 April 2026); Fortune on stablecoins and Bitcoin acceptance (10 April 2026); The Block on the 2 million dollar ceiling; House of Saud on Western ships paying in yuan; US News explainer; Kashmir Observer analysis; Financial Times on Bitcoin payments; Chainalysis and TRM Labs on the crypto mechanism; Al Jazeera on the IMO statement (12 April 2026); LSEG ship tracking data as cited by The National.