With the country in turmoil and Venezuela‘s future more uncertain than at any point since 1999 when Hugo Chavez first became president, the trade in Bitcoin has peaked, recording USD 10 million in trading on P2P platform LocalBitcoins in just seven days.
In the past week, the country was thrown into turmoil when Juan Guaido proclaimed himself unofficially as the country’s new president. With Nicolas Maduro still incumbent, Bitcoin P2P trades hit their second-highest weekly total ever. The cryptocurrency, albeit driven underground by the Maduro regime, has been supporting many of those nationals choosing to remain in the country rather than fleeing to neighboring Columbia in order to escape poverty.
As the situation becomes more explosive by the day, and with both Iran and Russia warning the US, who have backed the Maduro presidency, to stay out of Venezuela, nationals are again putting their faith in Bitcoin. In the last week, more Bolivars for Bitcoins were traded than ever before, despite the weakness of the national currency.
It can’t be confirmed if perhaps some of this activity may be due to Guaido’s liberal stance on cryptocurrency and the possibility of a new regime, but the rush on Bitcoin, coinciding with a dump of the bolivar, is unprecedented.
Maduro’s attempts to withdraw the country’s gold supplies this week, having already expelled US diplomats, was thwarted by the Bank of England who currently holds Venezuela’s USD 1.2 billion reserves. As Harvard economist explained, having communicated with Guaido:
“The first rule of business as we speak is to stop the Maduro government from liquidating international assets of the country and steal them.”
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