The Iranian regime is no longer run by clerics. As reported on The Daily, the war has ceded effective control to a pragmatic “board of directors” of Revolutionary Guard generals, with a severely injured Supreme Leader rubber-stamping their decisions from a bunker. This new leadership is motivated by money and power, not the late Ayatollah’s ideology.
Facing an estimated $300 billion to $1 trillion in war damage, these generals have proposed a once-unthinkable reversal: inviting American oil and shipping companies to invest directly in Iran. Their goal is simple - sanctions relief and cash to rebuild and pay IRGC salaries, staving off internal collapse.
Their primary leverage is the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade has already pushed Brent crude above $120, creating a 13-million-barrel-per-day supply shock. Now, as detailed in The Daily’s report, the generals plan to institutionalize this power by turning the strait into a permanent toll road. They calculate that charging fees for safe passage could generate more revenue than their entire oil industry.
"The plan is to treat the Strait of Hormuz as a toll road for the world's energy supply. The generals calculate that charging fees for safe passage could bring in more revenue than their entire oil industry."
- Farnaz Fassihi, The Daily
The U.S. response, as outlined on No Agenda, is economic. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is using dollar swap lines to pull the UAE out of OPEC, fracturing the cartel and isolating Iran. This strategy aims to trigger a currency crisis - the Iranian rial has already collapsed 70% - and provoke domestic unrest without a single drone strike.
Simultaneously, the U.S. is escalating financial warfare. The Treasury’s “Economic Fury” operation recently froze $344 million in USDT belonging to Iran, the largest such seizure in history. As discussed on Bankless, the Pentagon has also begun treating Bitcoin as a national security theater, running its own nodes to project power and track adversaries.
Despite the pressure, a formal peace deal remains out of reach. On Breaking Points, Krystal Ball noted that the war is already as unpopular as Vietnam at its peak. The White House, seeking a political win, calls the conflict a “successful military operation,” but logistical realities tell a different story: regional U.S. bases are degraded, and munitions stockpiles are depleted.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in contentious Senate testimony reported by The Daily, is exploiting a legal grey area to avoid congressional war authorization. He argues a tenuous ceasefire has paused the 60-day War Powers clock, allowing the executive branch to maintain the conflict indefinitely without a vote.
"He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a current ceasefire effectively stops the clock on the War Powers Act. This novel legal theory allows the administration to maintain the conflict without a formal vote."
- Eric Schmidt, The Daily
The standoff is a high-stakes gamble. Iran needs economic relief to survive. The U.S. needs a face-saving victory. Both sides are now maneuvering around a brittle ceasefire, using economic tools and strategic chokepoints instead of overt military force. The result is a new, transactional cold war where the Strait of Hormuz is not just a battlefield, but a potential cash register.
