Good morning. Iran’s demand that oil tankers pay transit tolls in cryptocurrency for passing through the Strait of Hormuz has cast a new light on the country’s $7.8 billion crypto economy and the role digital currencies play for regimes operating outside the mainstream financial system.

• Pay the toll: Hamid Hosseini, a spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Iran is collecting a tariff of $1 per barrel of oil for tankers passing through the key shipping lane, and wants to receive the payments in cryptocurrency to ensure that they can’t be traced or confiscated because of sanctions.
   
• Digital economy: Iran’s crypto ecosystem has grown rapidly in recent years amid sanctions, currency devaluation and external military threat, reaching about $7.8 billion last year, according to Chainalysis data. Analysts and researchers say the Iranian regime has used billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies to conduct trades, acquire weapons and commodities, and stockpile funds.
   
• Practical problems: How the digital-currency tolls on oil tankers would work in practice is unclear, crypto analysts said. It won’t be easy for shipping companies to acquire and then transfer large slugs of tokens under a tight deadline, they said. Buying, storing and moving digital currencies can pose operational hurdles, even in ideal conditions.

Justice Department opens investigation into NFL.

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether the National Football League has engaged in anticompetitive tactics that harm consumers, according to people familiar with the situation.

The Sports Broadcasting Act grants the league limited antitrust protection to allow the teams to collectively negotiate packages of TV rights. Media companies, regulators and members of Congress have raised concerns in recent months about how difficult and pricey it has become for consumers to watch their favorite sports, in part because of deals in which leagues offer smaller packages of games to streamers.

CFTC seeks injunction to stop Arizona criminal suit against Kalshi.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission asked a federal judge to stop Arizona from pursuing criminal charges against prediction market operator Kalshi for allegedly violating state gambling laws, Risk Journal reports (gift link). 

The derivatives regulator on Wednesday filed a request for a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order to stop the criminal case in state court, where an arraignment hearing is slated for Monday, from moving forward. Arizona’s criminal suit intrudes on the CFTC’s exclusive authority to regulate prediction markets, the agency argued.

• The day after President Trump announced a sudden pause of strikes against Iran last month, the White House warned staff against improperly leveraging their positions to place well-timed bets in futures markets.
   
• The Defense Department violated a court order to restore Pentagon access for journalists, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, a setback for the Trump administration.
   
• Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched an investigation into OpenAI and its ChatGPT models, citing national security risks and the possibility that ChatGPT helped facilitate a shooting at Florida State University.
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• In the wake of recent trial losses, Meta Platforms is removing law-firm ads recruiting clients to sue it.
   
• M​ore BP shareholders ​are backing a move ​c​alling on the energy major to​ prove that increasing investment in oil-and-gas production​ will deliver value for investors.
   
• Three former First Brands Group executives have asked a bankruptcy court to drop the company’s lawsuit alleging their involvement in a fraud scheme, saying that founder and former Chief Executive Patrick James acted alone.
   
• A new division within the Department of Justice will take control of criminal tax enforcement, in addition to fraud cases involving healthcare, benefits, and corporate fraud.
   
• SEC’s new enforcement director is joining the agency amid a “significant course correction.”
   
• Homeowners on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in California remain in limbo as the federal agency has yet to deliver $42 million in voluntary buyouts.

The Dow Jones Risk Journal Summit London on May 7 will convene senior business professionals for discussions on a range of corporate risks including supply chains, artificial intelligence, geopolitics and financial crime. Speakers include: Kathy Wengel, EVP, Chief Technical Operations and Risk Officer, Johnson & Johnson; Nish Imthiyaz, Global Privacy and Responsible AI Counsel, Vodafone; and Will Mayes, Chief Executive, Cyber Monitoring Centre.

Request a complimentary invitation here using the code COMPLIMENTARY. Attendance is limited, and all requests are subject to approval.

Inside the race to protect submarine cables from sabotage.

From the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, a global scramble is under way to protect submarine cables vulnerable to potential sabotage.

Governments, militaries, cable owners and tech startups are taking action to bolster the defenses of the world’s underwater cable network, through which most international data traffic travels.

• U.K. Says It Foiled Secret Russian Submarine Operation

Insurers take bigger risks than before 2008-09 crisis, report warns.

Most insurance companies got through the 2008-09 financial crisis all right. A ratings firm just warned that the industry might not get through the next one unscathed.

A.M. Best plans to publish a report Friday that finds that the investment portfolios of insurers that sell annuities hold more risky debt than they did in 2007, the year before the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The ratings firm adds that annuity portfolios had a slightly smaller financial cushion in 2024—the most recent year for which data was available—than they did in 2007.

• The U.S. and Iran may have agreed to a temporary cease-fire this week, but economic warfare is here to stay.
   
• The impact of the conflict in the Middle East on economic growth and inflation around the world will partly depend on the damage caused to energy production and transport infrastructure, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s chief economist.
   
• Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz is squeezing consumers and businesses around the world. But the costs of a new toll system demanded by Tehran would fall heavily on Persian Gulf states, economists say, suggesting that the U.S. and other world powers might have few economic incentives to oppose it.
   
• A surge in energy costs triggered by the war in Iran pushed up producer prices in China, snapping a streak of factory deflation in the country that lasted more than three years.
   
• American Airlines is the latest airline to boost bag fees as the industry contends with a rapid run-up in the price of fuel.

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• U.S. jobless claims rebounded last week to their highest level since February, painting a blurry picture of the labor market after a strong jobs report in March.
   
• The global economy is set to grow more slowly than previously expected even if the truce in the Middle East proves lasting, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.
   
• One way to make