Fidelity Digital Assets released a report on May 28 highlighting what it calls “growing evidence” of a shift away from dollar-based settlement systems, pointing to Iran’s acceptance of Bitcoin for oil shipping tolls and central banks’ continued gold accumulation as markers of this transition.
In April 2026, Iran’s government announced it would accept Bitcoin, US dollar-pegged stablecoins, and Chinese yuan for oil shipping tolls transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The move follows consideration in May 2025 of a maritime shipping insurance model for oil vessels payable in Bitcoin and “settled at the speed of blockchain,” according to Iranian media reports.
Fidelity’s report, titled “Six Key Trends Shaping Digital Assets in 2026,” frames Iran’s Bitcoin acceptance as evidence of alternative settlement mechanisms emerging outside US control. The firm notes that central banks’ demand for gold remains strong despite a 20% decline from its all-time high of $5,600 per ounce reached in January.
However, the report contains a notable contradiction to its de-dollarization thesis. Fidelity stated that “gold’s performance and continued central bank demand are broadly aligned with our initial thesis, while the anticipated follow-on outperformance from bitcoin has yet to materialize.” Gold has outperformed Bitcoin in recent months, undercutting the case for Bitcoin as an imminent replacement for dollar-based reserves.
The practical limitations of Bitcoin adoption are also evident. In April 2026, US authorities froze $344 million in stablecoins linked to Iran’s government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), demonstrating Washington’s continued ability to seize dollar-pegged assets. Despite this confiscation risk, Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, noted that Tether’s USDt continues to dominate oil shipping fees, suggesting limited real-world shift away from dollar-pegged systems despite regulatory pressure.
Bitcoin supporters argue its neutral, confiscation-resistant, and decentralized properties position it as a potential replacement for the US dollar as the global reserve currency. Fidelity’s framing of Iran’s Bitcoin acceptance aligns with this argument, though the report’s acknowledgment that Bitcoin’s outperformance “has yet to materialize” suggests institutional caution about the timeline and scale of any such transition.
Fidelity did not specify which other nation-states beyond Iran are turning to Bitcoin or gold as alternatives to dollar-based settlement, nor did the firm provide data on the volume of Iran’s Bitcoin acceptance for oil tolls or central bank gold accumulation rates.
