Bolivar’s Daily Bitcoin Trading Volume Surpasses $1 Million

We all know that Venezuela is not among the richest countries out there – with an economic situation that has been steadily declining over the past few years. However, this has led a lot of Venezuelans to turn to cryptocurrencies as an alternative source of income.

The Bolivar market is where most of this efforts are focused. Recently, the market reached a new record as more than $1.009 million in bolivars (the national cryptocurrency) were exchanged for Bitcoin on April 17th this year.

In other words, Venezuelans are turning to cryptocurrencies as the government enforced strict foreign exchange controls in 2003. The controls see individuals and businesses who aren’t able to obtain government approval in order to purchase dollars at legal rates – turning to the black market.

However, cryptocurrencies help Venezuelans access foreign goods in an easy way and therefore survive government failures. In 2017, the co-founder of Venezuelan-based cryptocurrency brokerage Cryptobuyer, Jorge Farias, had over 10,000 users at the time. In an interview with a media outlet, he said:

“The transaction takes a few minutes, our commission is three to seven percent lower than the banks, and our exchange rate is regulated by supply and demand, making it more realistic than the official”

Currently, Venezuelans have limited access to official foreign exchange markets. This makes it hard to get a sense of what their currency is actually worth. They are changing it on the cryptocurrency exchanges.

Another devastating thing for the Venezuelan standard are the prices – which surged by 454% in the first quarter of this year and a massive 8,900% over the past 12 months – driven by hyperinflation and bringing the country on the brink of economic collapse.