How a hidden armada of oil tankers is breaking the sanctions system

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	Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more The Hidden Oil Network Powering the World’s Conflicts How a hidden armada of oil tankers is breaking the sanctions system Demian Schatt and Nik Bhatia Jan 15 ∙ Preview   READ IN APP   Dear Readers, It’s Thinking Time! As U.S. forces just seized another oil tanker linked to Venezuela, this week’s TBL Thinks looks at a system most people have never heard of but that now sits at the center of global geopolitics. The shadow fleet, a parallel oil market that keeps sanctioned regimes funded outside the Western financial system. TBL Thinks is our way to summarize the most important paywalled, longer reads relevant to global macroeconomics, helping you cut through the noise. With that in mind, please enjoy. The cracks in the foundations of money are becoming harder to ignore. Persistent deficits, rising debt, and central bank behavior are quietly reshaping how investors think about preservation and risk. On January 28 at 1PM CST, James Lavish joins Unchained for a live conversation on currency debasement, why traditional portfolio assumptions are being tested, and how gold and bitcoin fit into a changing monetary landscape. The discussion will cover: Why debasement is structural, not cyclical How inflation and financial repression challenge familiar portfolios Why gold tends to move first—and bitcoin often moves further Wednesday, January 28 at 1PM CST — online, free to attend. Register now and get early access to the report: Register Here The TBL Research Dashboard is our LIVE research platform for tracking bitcoin, global liquidity, and macro conditions in real time. Inside the dashboard you get: The TBL Liquidity Index and a live Buy/Sell signal The TBL Liquidity Wave with 6-month forward projections for bitcoin and the S&P 500 30+ live Macrobond charts covering labor, inflation, productivity, money markets, and the Fed Bitcoin models and on-chain data including Realized Price, MVRV, 200-day MA, Power Law, and funding rates Built-in methodology and explanations for every model and signal The dashboard is continuously updated as new charts, models, and research are added. It is available exclusively to TBL Pro members. Unlock the Dashboard The Money That Keeps Sanctioned Regimes Alive The United States uses sanctions to cut off access to money and limit the resources available to governments it is trying to pressure. By blocking countries from the dollar system, Western banks, and global trade, sanctions are meant to deprive those governments of the revenue they need to fund wars, terror networks, and military buildups. But in reality, that pressure has been far less effective: Russia continues to finance its war in Ukraine at scale. Iran continues to bankroll armed groups across the Middle East. North Korea continues to build missiles and run global cybercrime networks. And before U.S. intervention, Venezuela was able to keep exporting oil and generating hard-currency revenue despite heavy sanctions. According to the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission, Chinese trade and financial networks have allowed sanctioned states to remain plugged into global markets despite U.S. and multilateral sanctions. The Shadow Fleet, How the Money Moves The shadow fleet is a global network of oil tankers used by sanctioned states to keep exporting crude oil outside the reach of Western enforcement. Russia, Iran, and Venezuela rely on these ships to move oil without using Western insurers, Western banks, or Western shipping services, allowing them to keep generating revenue even while cut off from the dollar system. ... Subscribe to The Bitcoin Layer to unlock the rest. Become a paying subscriber of The Bitcoin Layer to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. Upgrade to paid A subscription gets you: Exclusive access to the TBL Liquidity Indicator and Live Research Dashboard Actionable levels and price structure analysis for Bitcoin Macro and risk insights that guide positioning decisions   Like Comment Restack   © 2026 Nik Bhatia 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe