Zimbabwe Banned The Use Of The U.S. Dollar, Spikes A Massive BTC Fever

Zimbabwe banned the use of the United States dollar, forcing its citizens to adopt a national currency which backfired massively. In the latest cryptocurrency news today, we read more of what exactly happened.

Zimbabwe’s national currency stopped circulating all the way back in 2009 while they were trying to stabilize the economy. However, when the policies changed, the government of the country readopted the local currency which was the RTGS dollar- later renamed to the Zimbabwe dollar. Zimbabwe banned the use of domestic transactions by using foreign currencies. This move was not accepted among the locals and many avoided using the ‘’zollars.’’ Some of the people like Godfrey Mupanga tried to ask the courts to ban that decision. Others traded dollars on the black market in order to protect themselves from the huge inflation.

The recent interest in crypto led to a major increase in the volume of Bitcoins sold in the country. Some of the citizens leveraged the advantage of cryptocurrencies in order to offer services or to open a business based on blockchain technology in order to avoid government restrictions. One such example is Tinashe Jani who used blockchain to send money between Zimbabwe and South Africa:

“The cut by the banks meant that one could not swipe or withdraw money in their account for rent, fees, or even groceries. So, we started using the local currency to buy bitcoin in Zimbabwe and sending those to SA and immediately converting them to rands for our clients for a small fee.”

Although the government considers Bitcoin to be illegal, the citizens of the country prefer to risk it all using bitcoin than to lose all their purchasing power. Bitcoin trading increased so much in the country that today it is one of the most important markets in the southern part of the African continent. The CEO and founder of the Golix crypto exchange Tawanda Kembo noted:

“What we are seeing is that there is a lot of demand for bitcoin, and there is little supply compared to demand, so all the activity in bitcoin which we are seeing is happening on dark markets instead of exchanges.’’

As reported in some of the best cryptocurrency news sites, just like in Zimbabwe, Venezuela has the same problem with the high inflation. The market is sustained by Venezuelans without the state’s participation so it seems like Bitcoin is the only way to protect themselves from the terrible decision of their governments.