Economic trouble-ridden Venezuela has again experienced a surge in Crypto adoption. Venezuelan crypto adoption spiked recently thanks to banks being forced to stop activities as a way of stopping the spread of coronavirus.
Venezuela’s President, Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday, had to quarantine the whole country to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The country has confirmed about 33 positive cases of coronavirus. Maduro believes a nationwide quarantine measure will help the country’s health sector manage the spread of the virus and not get overwhelmed.
Shutdown enabled Venezuelan crypto adoption spike
The country also had shut down all banks indefinitely as part of measures to quarantine its citizens. This is the primary reason behind the recent surge in Venezuelan crypto adoption and increased P2P crypto trading. A peer to peer bitcoin marketplace in Venezuela, Localbitcoins has experienced a rise of over $3 million in two weeks.
The pandemic coronavirus happens to be to the advantage of Venezuelan crypto adoption as people now adopt the digital asset as an alternative to going to banks. In the South American continent, Localbitcoins transactions have spiked by 30 percent in Peru, and around 15 percent in Colombia in recent times. However, both countries already closed their borders because of the ravaging coronavirus.
As much as coronavirus has boosted Venezuelan crypto adoption, it has posed a threat to the country’s indigenous cryptocurrency, Petro dampening the government effort to ensure its adoption. Venezuela’s president has continued to put effort into place to ensure the adoption of Petro. Last year Maduro had civil servants get their bonuses in Petro and earlier this year announced a Petro powered casino.
He launched the casino after directing that airline fuel sales for international flight be transacted in Crypto. However, with all these efforts, Venezuela’s still prefer to transact with other cryptos with coins like Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum(ETH), XRP among the most preferred and transected coins in the country.
