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- Iran Launches Bitcoin-Backed Insurance for Strait of Hormuz Shipping
Iran Launches Bitcoin-Backed Insurance for Strait of Hormuz Shipping
Plus: 🟧 Strategy buys $2B more bitcoin, tops 843,000 BTC | 📊 SEC readies tokenized stock "innovation exemption"
Aakash Girimath
May 19, 2026
Hi! In today’s edition:
🇮🇷 Iran launched a Bitcoin-settled insurance platform for ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz
🟧 Strategy bought another $2 billion in bitcoin, and STRC funded almost all of it
📊 The SEC is about to open the door for tokenized stock trading on crypto platforms
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Iran Launches Bitcoin-Settled Insurance Platform for Strait of Hormuz Shipping
Iran launched Hormuz Safe, a state-backed maritime insurance platform that settles premiums in bitcoin, targeting ships and cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz, IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported Saturday.
The platform, developed by Iran's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, issues coverage immediately upon blockchain confirmation and delivers a signed digital receipt to the cargo owner. Iran claims the program could generate more than $10 billion in revenue, though the official website currently shows a "Coming Soon" page and no independent source has verified that the platform is processing policies.
The move formalizes months of escalating monetization. The IRGC has been charging crypto-denominated tolls for passage since mid-March, with fees reaching up to $2 million per tanker. Iran's parliament passed the Strait of Hormuz Management Plan in March, codifying the transit toll system.
Strategy Buys 24,869 Bitcoin for $2 Billion, Tops 843,000 BTC
Strategy bought 24,869 bitcoin for approximately $2.01 billion at an average price of $80,985 per coin during the week of May 11-15, the company said in an 8-K filed Monday.
Total holdings now stand at 843,738 BTC acquired for roughly $63.87 billion at an average cost of $75,700 per coin. BTC Yield, Strategy's proprietary metric tracking bitcoin-per-share growth, has reached 12.6% year to date.
The purchase was funded almost entirely through the sale of 19.5 million STRC preferred shares for $1.949 billion in net proceeds, plus 430,000 MSTR common shares for $83.7 million. The filing did not disclose any bitcoin sales.
SEC Readies Tokenized Stock "Innovation Exemption" as Wall Street Push Deepens
The SEC is preparing to release an "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks as early as this week, Bloomberg Law reported Monday, the clearest signal yet that the agency is opening the door for blockchain-based equity trading at scale.
The framework would let crypto-native platforms offer digital versions of publicly traded securities under lighter regulatory requirements during an experimental period. SEC Chair Paul Atkins signaled in early May that new rulemaking was coming as part of the agency's "Project Crypto" initiative.
The move follows Nasdaq and NYSE winning SEC approval for tokenized equity trading in March and April, respectively, under the Depository Trust Company's three-year blockchain pilot.
📢 DEX in the City Alert 🚨
Crypto's biggest market structure bill just cleared Senate Banking 15-9, and the industry capped the same month by throwing its flagship conference's afterparty at a Miami strip club.
On DEX in the City, Katherine, Jessi, and Vy take on both: what still has to happen before the Clarity Act reaches Trump's desk, why Kraken and Ledger just pulled their IPOs while WallStreetBets is picking a fight with the SEC, and whether crypto culture is actually maturing or just better at pretending.
Streams today at 12pm ET
🌷 Tom Lee's BitMine added 71,672 ETH worth $151 million last week as ETH slipped below $2,200, reversing the prior week's slowdown and lifting total holdings to nearly 5.28 million ETH — roughly 4.4% of circulating supply. Lee called the pullback an "attractive opportunity" and blamed rising oil prices as the biggest headwind, while reaffirming the firm's target of reaching the "alchemy of 5%" in 2026.
📊 Kraken parent Payward posted Q1 adjusted revenue of $507 million, up 3% year-over-year despite bitcoin falling 22% and industry spot volumes plunging 38%. Futures daily average revenue trades surged 51%, spot market share climbed to 5.2% from 3.5%, and funded accounts grew 47% to 6.1 million, though adjusted EBITDA fell to $18 million as spending on acquisitions, including Backed, Magna, Bitnomial, and Reap continued ahead of a delayed IPO.
🗽 Galaxy Digital received a New York BitLicense and money transmitter license from NYDFS, allowing its GalaxyOne Prime NY subsidiary to offer regulated trading and custody to hedge funds, RIAs, and family offices in the state. Galaxy, which manages roughly $9 billion in client assets, becomes the second firm to secure a BitLicense in 2026 after Strike's March approval.
⛏️ HIVE Digital stock rallied as much as 45% after unveiling a CAD $3.5 billion ($2.55 billion) AI "gigafactory" in the Greater Toronto Area through its BUZZ HPC subsidiary. The planned 320-megawatt campus will host over 100,000 GPUs at full build on 25 acres acquired for CAD $58 million ($42 million), with a target launch in the second half of 2027.
⚖️ Swan Bitcoin was hit with a $970 million clawback lawsuit by the Prime Trust bankruptcy estate, which alleges Swan withdrew roughly 11,992 BTC, $22.4 million in cash, $5 million in stablecoins, and 91,144 XRP in the 90 days before Prime's August 2023 bankruptcy filing. The complaint claims a senior Prime Trust executive tipped off Swan CEO Cory Klippsten via encrypted message on June 22, 2023; Swan disputes the claims, arguing customer assets held in trust accounts are not estate property.
🇬🇧 The Bank of England and FCA launched a joint consultation on tokenized wholesale markets, committing to a live synchronization service by 2028 and extending RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours toward near-24/7 operation. Feedback closes July 3, with 16 firms already testing live issuance in the Digital Securities Sandbox and a cross-authority roadmap due later this year.
🟣 Bitwise will devote 10% of the management fee from its newly launched BHYP Hyperliquid ETF to holding HYPE on its balance sheet, mirroring Hyperliquid's model where 99% of protocol revenue buys back and burns HYPE tokens. The ETF began trading on NYSE on May 15 with a 0.34% sponsor fee and is the first U.S. product to offer in-house staking through Bitwise Onchain Solutions.
📈 Ostium's onchain perpetuals exchange will be powered by Nasdaq data, bringing institutional-grade price feeds to a decentralized derivatives platform.
🏦 Standard Chartered will acquire the remainder of crypto custodian subsidiary Zodia Custody, integrating the regulated custody business into its Financing and Securities Services division. The infrastructure platform will be spun off as Zodia Solutions, a standalone SaaS company under SC Ventures, while the deal opens new custody markets, including the UK and Australia.
💳 Stripe-backed Tempo tapped Morpho's $7.5 billion DeFi lending marketplace to expand beyond payments into borrowing and yield products, bringing onchain lending to the stablecoin-focused chain.
💳 Revolut unveiled its first physical crypto card, letting users spend Dogecoin and other crypto assets at retail merchants as industry-wide crypto card usage grows.
🇪🇺 Zerohash received an EMI license from the Dutch Central Bank, becoming the first stablecoin brokerage to secure MiCA-compliant electronic money institution status across the European Economic Area.
🏦 Minnesota banks and credit unions will be able to provide crypto custody starting August 1 under a new state law requiring asset segregation, cybersecurity reviews, and risk management plans — the first such framework in the Midwest.
💵 Tether invested in LemFi to power stablecoin-driven remittances across emerging markets, expanding USDT settlement into cross-border payments for diaspora communities.
🤖 AEON raised $8 million in a pre-seed round led by YZi Labs, with participation from IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, and the Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund, to build a settlement layer for AI agent-to-agent payments connecting to over 50 million real-world merchants.
🇯🇵 AnotherBall raised ¥2.5 billion ($16.7 million) from Japan's four major banks — Shoko Chukin, MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho — bringing total capital to ¥4.7 billion as it builds blockchain-based financial infrastructure with rare backing from all four pillars of Japanese banking.
