This post was originally published under the title Crypto Usage Grows in Venezuela Despite Government Mismanagement on August 8, 2024, and updated on January 12, 2026.
Summary
- Political upheaval and uncertainty about what the country’s future holds continue to add to Venezuela’s economic challenges.
- Economic uncertainties have attracted Venezuelans to crypto and the country ranked 18th for adoption in the 2025 global ranking. For several years, Venezuelans have embraced cryptocurrencies to counter severe financial problems, including hyperinflation (which peaked at 10 million percent in 2018), the risk of government seizure, to protect wages, and as a means to send and receive remittances (which in 2025, constituted 7.5% of GDP).
- A crackdown on crypto in general, and bitcoin mining in particular, under the former administration of Nicolás Maduro, undermined the sector. The current political situation is too fluid to indicate crypto’s future prospects, but usage is likely to continue – and may even grow in the short term – given the country’s economic challenges.
- For more information about how crypto usage is developing in countries worldwide, see our other Crypto in Action articles.
Venezuela in economic crisis
Venezuela is home to the world’s largest proven reserves of oil, and yet, during Maduro’s presidency the country suffered what was described as “one of the worst economic meltdowns outside a war zone in modern history.” Hyperinflation has been a huge economic issue for many years, running into six digits between 2016-2019. US sanctions on the country’s oil (reimposed in April 2024) designed to pressure the Maduro administration, exacerbated the economic situation.
Following Maduro’s capture at the hands of the US in January 2026, the fiat, the bolivar, depreciated almost 20% on the black market, while the prospect of rampant inflation reappeared. At its official rate, the currency had by early 2026 lost almost 80% of its value since the start of 2025. The IMF has forecast a rapid rise in inflation, from an average of 270% in 2025 to more than 680% in 2026.
Reflecting the difficult domestic situation, remittances have risen commensurately in recent years, topping $5.4 billion during 2023. Increasingly, Venezuelans overseas have used crypto to transfer this wealth into the country. In 2023, cryptocurrencies made up 9% of the country’s remittances.
How is crypto being used in Venezuela?
Venezuela has suffered significant financial problems since 2014. In March 2023, underscoring the scale of the fiat’s depreciation, the central bank released the one million bolivar note. It sounds a lot, but it equated to approximately $0.50.
Crypto has become a popular option for practical reasons, and it is estimated that approximately 10% of the population owns crypto assets, excluding the many unregistered exchanges used for services like sending remittances. Legislation is limited but cryptoasset custody and exchange is permitted.
Many people don’t hold cryptocurrency portfolios. Instead, for them, crypto is simply for swift, daily, transactional purposes with crypto wallets used like a bank. As a result, P2P is popular, and exchanges like Binance and Kraken are used.
The bolivar is so devalued that it’s not practical, or safe, to carry the quantity of money required to buy even basic items. The public transport system is one of the few services that still requires cash payment. Users have to wait for hours in bank queues to withdraw the 400,000 bolivars (approximately $0.20) for a single transit fare. Alongside this, the Maduro administration cracked down on black market dollar usage, further constraining the options available to the country’s citizens.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, between June 2023 and June 2024, cryptocurrency usage increased by 110%. Over the same period between 2024 and 2025, cryptocurrency transaction volumes registered $44.6 billion.
During 2023, the government cracked down on crypto. Until then, bitcoin had been a popular currency, alongside exchange Signuptoken.com and currency, BNB. Many Venezuelans use custodial solutions like AirTM, meaning they can spend their bitcoin within a network, which makes it easier to send and receive funds. These networks are regarded as more trustworthy than dealing with exchanges.
Alongside this, cryptocurrencies offer other advantages. They represent a hedge against inflation as well as protection against strict financial controls. They are popular with Venezuela’s freelancers, who typically ask to be paid in cryptocurrencies or work for overseas clients, who as matter of course, pay in these currencies. For those able to save, cryptocurrencies present relative financial stability and a ‘location’ beyond the government’s financial reach.
Bitcoin mining was popular in Venezuela, buoyed by cheap electricity. Increasingly, however, supply has become unreliable with power cuts regular, and in addition, the authorities banned the practice during 2024.
Businesses often use bitcoin to obtain far more stable foreign currencies, like the dollar, some cashing in and out of crypto daily to best protect their earnings.
During the COVID pandemic, an interim government led by Juan Guaidó (the National Assembly declared him acting president in 2019), used cryptocurrency to deliver aid to nurses and doctors countrywide. Corruption within Maduro’s regime made it difficult to deliver aid using traditional means, so instead, cryptocurrency wallets were set up to transfer funds to trusted individuals (all KYC checked), who then distributed the money to 65,000 medical professionals.
An opportunity for crypto and traditional banking to merge?
In September 2025, new authorizations were granted to legal entities to operate as cryptocurrency exchanges and custodians. This was possibly an acknowledgement of the fact that for a number of years, it has been difficult to exchange currency or transact with international banks, a situation that has supported the usage of crypto.
In December 2025, payment company, Conexus, announced plans to build a blockchain-based system for the country’s banks. This would allow Venezuelans to store, send, and exchange bitcoin and tether through their regular bank account, rather than an app, pointing to better protection for customers, suggesting even greater crypto take up.
Venezuela, crypto, and remittances: a lifeline for many
As the economy has deteriorated, so the numbers of people leaving the country in search of work has risen, and with this, remittances have grown. Again, crypto has provided a swift and reasonable solution.
Typically, traditional money transfer services present higher costs and take longer than crypto exchanges. Exacerbating the situation, the Venezuelan government passed legislation in 2018 that allowed it to take a percentage of the funds coming from overseas. As a result, exchange fees rose to as high as 56% and the process took weeks. In light of this, crypto – with its low transaction costs and almost instantaneous transfer – has understandably become a preferred option.
The situation is not expected to improve until political tensions subside.
Venezuela crypto regulation and the failed Petro
The country’s crypto laws are limited, lack transparency and government-related corruption has tainted the sector.
In a bid to circumvent international sanctions, Maduro’s government created the Petro in 2017, Venezuela’s own cryptocurrency, backed by more than 5.3 million barrels of oil and gold reserves.
It sought to use the cryptocurrency to replace its static oil reserves and introduced a DeFi platform, BDVE, to allow Venezuelans to swap ERC20 tokens in a non-custodial manner.
The government made it mandatory for Venezuelans to use the Petro for government services, and although this move wasn’t popular, it had the side-effect of further increasing public interest in, and knowledge about, cryptocurrencies and their usage.
The Petro never really took off, however, and its use quickly dwindled. Rumours emerged suggesting that the oil reserves that backed the Petro didn’t exist. External allies showed little support for the initiative, and the US government imposed wider sanctions, which meant that the Petro could only be used internally.
The Petro stopped trading on major exchanges and users and companies began to report failures in its underlying blockchain, casting further questions and doubts over its future.
The Petro’s death knell perhaps sounded in the fact that even Venezuela’s central bank refused to accept in, and in 2024, it was finally shut down.
Government pivots from supporting to targeting crypto and back again
The government’s attitude towards crypto changed dramatically in March 2023 when it emerged that between $3 billion and $20 billion was believed to be missing from the national oil and gas company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A.. It was alleged that those involved used crypto wallets to redirect payments owed to the company.
Approximately 80 people were arrested, the body in charge of overseeing the crypto sector, the National Superintendency of Crypto Assets (SUNACRIP), was suspended and subsequently overhauled, and the intelligence police conducted audits of bitcoin miners.
A total of 10 members of SUNACRIP’s staff were arrested and accused of misappropriating more than $3 million.
During the rest of the year, the government targeted operations and individual miners, despite the fact that most miners focused on bitcoin, which has nothing to do with the ‘pre-mined’ Petro.
In May 2024, officials announced a ban on crypto mining for a very different reason – on the basis that the practice was placing too great a burden on the power grid.
In August 2024, in the face of protests at Maduro’s claims to re-election following July’s presidential polls, a number of websites – including Binance – were blocked. Binance is one of the most popular exchange sites in the country for P2P activity.
During 2025, it appeared that the Maduro regime might be reconsidering its position. In September, it emerged that the authorities were slowly allowing the use of crypto tied to the US dollar in the private sector. A report from December 2025 suggested that Maduro had said he wanted to return to the “crypto path” on the basis that it brought foreign currency into the country. Controversially, the authorities also turned to crypto to avoid sanctions.
Following Maduro’s capture, reports emerged that his administration had accrued a large bitcoin reserve. At this stage, the existence of this remains unverified, but it has been suggested that illicit operations, including the confiscation of citizens’ assets, stolen gold reserves swaps and sanctioned oil sales, resulted in a reserve containing 600,000 bitcoin.
Venezuela’s crypto development timeline
In December 2017, the government announced that it would create its own cryptocurrency, the Petro, which could be issued, mined and traded in the country.
The Petro launched in February 2018, with the government intending to use the country’s oil and mineral reserves as backing for it.
A month later the legislature declared the Petro illegal.
In April 2018, the country’s initial attempt at a regulatory framework – the Office of the Venezuelan Superintendent on Cryptoassets of Venezuela and Ancillary Activities (SUPCACVEN) – was established through the legislature. SUPCACVEN had the duty to oversee the control and protection of cryptoassets, and was managed and supervised by the Vice-Presidency.
The Cryptoassets Constituent Decree was a general legal framework, which allowed for the creation, circulation, use and exchange of crypto assets by individuals and legal entities (resident and non-resident).
It empowered the National Executive to regulate cryptoassets, create and issue cryptoassets, authorize operations of virtual exchanges, and regulate the cryptoassets market. Broadly, it generically indicated that the state would promote, protect and guarantee the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in and outside the country.
At the same time, a Treasury of Cryptoassets was also created. This was a state-owned company, again falling under the Vice-Presidency, dedicated to the issue, custody, collection and distribution of cryptoassets, activities related to managing cryptoassets, and the negotiable tools used to support them.
In 2019, a presidential decree replaced SUPCACVEN with the National Superintendence of Cryptocurrencies (SUNACRIP). SUNACRIP was given the power to regulate the creation, issuance, organization, operation and use of cryptoassets.
In January, the Constituent Decree on the Integral System of Cryptoassets, issued by the National Constituent Assembly, was published.
In September 2020, the country legalized bitcoin mining. SUNACRIP announced that miners needed to obtain licenses and enrol with either the Comprehensive Registry of Cryptoactive Services (RISEC) or the Comprehensive Registry of Miners (RIM). All activities were to be conducted through the National Mining Pool, overseen by the government, which distributed the rewards from mining and penalized those outside this arrangement.
In 2022, crypto transactions were brought under the Tax on Large Financial Transactions Law (LIGTF) as part of amendments.
In 2023, mining facilities were closed because of a corruption probe into the country’s oil industry and head of the crypto ministry. In 2024, crypto mining was banned.
In September 2023, the authorities announced they were extending the length of time it would take to reorganize SUNACRIP by another six months, taking the timeline to March 2024.
In March 2024, it was announced that SUNACRIP had been reorganized and was expected to resume operations, which were suspended in March 2023 because of the oil scandal. The private sector was given a role in regulation through the formation of CAVEMCRIP.
Reports suggest that by the end of Q1, 2024, state-owned oil company, PDVSA, required new clients to make payments in crypto for spot oil deals.
In September 2025, in accordance with Article 11 of the Constituent Decree on the Comprehensive Cryptocurrency System, new authorizations were granted to legal entities to operate as cryptocurrency exchangers and custodians.
In January 2026, reports emerged suggesting that the Maduro administration had a reserve of 600,000 bitcoin.
The outlook for crypto
Reflecting the country’s significant and continued economic challenges, crypto can be expected to remain a popular option for Venezuelans for everyday transactions and remittance payments, suggesting adoption will keep on rising. Notably, in rankings adjusted to reflect the percentage of population using crypto, Venezuela is ranked 9th, globally
Maduro’s tenure was marked by increasing condemnation, domestically and internationally. It is notable that the International Criminal Court has been investigating the actions of the country’s security forces in 2017 for crimes against humanity, while the US – even before Maduro’s capture – had placed bounties on Maduro and 14 other officials for drug trafficking.
Reflecting the uncertainty in the political and legislative outlook, little change can be expected to the crypto sector in terms of legislation. Those running the country face many challenges, and as such, crypto legislation promulgation is unlikely to be high on the agenda.
Greater oversight of the sector is, however, required to better protect users. This makes the move by Conexus interesting, because by regularizing crypto in Trad-Fi banking, it would help bring transparency and oversight to the sector.
