Chainalysis Senior Intelligence Analyst Kaitlin Martin has warned that any payments to the Iranian government, including shipping passage fees, could be deemed "material support" under current sanctions, posing significant risks of severe penalties for shipping companies. Martin highlighted that while cryptocurrencies enable cross-border transfers outside traditional financial systems, their transparent and permanent ledger makes them more traceable than conventional sanction evasion methods. Additionally, Iran's Bitcoin hash rate has significantly dropped from approximately 9 EH/s to about 2 EH/s over the past quarter, influenced by strained relations with the U.S. and Israel.