Iran’s decision to accept Bitcoin as payment for oil shipping tolls through the Strait of Hormuz gave fresh weight to a question already circulating in Washington: does the US military actually understand crypto well enough to use it as a tool of national power?

A Waterway And A Currency

About 20% of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran announced it would accept Chinese yuan, dollar-pegged stablecoins, and Bitcoin for tolls on ships passing through.

Officials at the Bitcoin Policy Institute told reporters that Iran leans toward stablecoins — but Bitcoin has a quality stablecoins don’t. Stablecoins can be frozen by their issuers at the contract level. Bitcoin cannot. No single entity controls the network, which means no one can shut it down or block a transaction.

US Admiral Calls Bitcoin Key to Cybersecurity and Power Projection

Admiral Samuel Paparo sees Bitcoin as a strategic tool for U.S. cybersecurity and national power, emphasizing its proof-of-work advantages. (Read More)

➤ https://t.co/ik53cB163F #Power #Admiral #Bitcoin

— BTCN.it Short Crypto News (@bitcns) April 22, 2026

“This is one of the most significant situations where Bitcoin is very clearly a strategic asset,” said Sam Lyman, head of research at the BPI. He added that Iran’s preference for BTC in certain transactions comes down to one thing: no one can freeze it.

That backdrop made what happened in a Senate hearing room on Tuesday all the more pointed.

What The Admiral Said

US Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss the posture of US Indo-Pacific Command.

During testimony, he told the committee that the US government operates a Bitcoin node and described the cryptocurrency as “the combination of cryptography, a blockchain, and a proof of work” — framing it as a computer science tool and an instrument of power projection.

Lowkey love that they bamboozled the Government with Bitcoin as a Tool for National Security(tm) to the point that a decorated Admiral now sits in front of Congress babbling something about “Bitcoin as a valuable computer science project for US power projection” lmao send help https://t.co/s8dcvLssuY

— L0la L33tz (@L0laL33tz) April 21, 2026

Crypto educator Matthew Kratter was unimpressed. He said online that the admiral sounded like he was reading off a Wikipedia page. Kratter said neither Paparo nor Senator Tommy Tuberville, who was also part of the exchange, appeared to grasp what they were actually talking about.

“These two guys are talking about something they don’t understand,” Kratter wrote. “All I could think is they’re saying absolutely nothing.”

Journalist Lola Leetz called the testimony “babbling.”

Substance Behind The Criticism

The Bitcoin community’s reaction zeroed in on a basic concern: if the US military is positioning the crypto as a strategic asset, vague language about “computer science tools” and “power projection” doesn’t inspire confidence that decision-makers understand the network’s actual properties — particularly the ones that make it useful in high-stakes geopolitical situations.

Iran’s move at the Strait of Hormuz made that gap harder to ignore. Data from the Bitcoin Policy Institute shows that transactions linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps account for nearly half of total crypto market volume inside Iran.