Checking last week's statistics, 281 BTC were traded in Venezuela on LocalBitcoins.
The number is quite down from 361 BTC, traded the week before, buying and selling BTC/FIAT.
- 281 BTC is over 2,700,000,000,000 Bs. (Bolivares).
- One Bitcoin (BTC) is currently almost 9,000,000,000 Bs.
- Monthly minimum wage is less than 30,000 satoshis - less than 5 USD.
- Average monthly income about 120,000 sats - about $21.
The number of Bitcoins traded seems to go down over the weeks and sort of dropped from about 2,000 BTC per month down to about 1,500 BTC monthly trades. This is due to the price of Bitcoin going up quite rapidly in the past few months. Keep reading to see the figures in fiat, please.
There are quite a few exchanges in Venezuela (Airtm, Binance, Uphold, etc) but only LocalBitcoins provides the data to see weekly volumes. Also, LocalBitcoins has possibly the most of the trades in Venezuela because people who left the country (about 5,000,000) are now sending some of their earnings back to the country to support their family members. The reason is simple, the minimum wage (most people work for or near minimum wage) is less than $5 per month. It doesn't mean that everything is dirt cheap. Most products are imported and that means the prices are similar to prices in the US or elsewhere.
If you want to learn more about the situation in Venezuela, the best website in English is probably this one: Caracas Chronicles
If you prefer a quick TL;DR: Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Venezuela
The 2019-20 National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI), conducted by researchers at Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) and published on Tuesday, Venezuelans' average income was just 0.72 USD per day ($21 per month). Reuters covering the Survey in English.
Back to Bitcoin, the best and cheapest way to help families is simply to send them Bitcoin from abroad and they'll use it to pay or trade it back to Bolivares so they can buy food, pay rent, taxes,.
LocalBitcoins listings: https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/ves/
It looks like most Bitcoins were traded at the beginning of 2019. That's true but don't forget that Bitcoin was that time at it's cheapest since ATH in 2017.
Here's the same volume in Bolivares (Fiat currency in Venezuela) - all time high volume again!!
People in Venezuela are buying Bitcoin big time. It might be due to Venezuelans using Bitcoin as a store of value (digital gold) or simply because they are hitting ATH (All Time High) every other week. You can check the weekly volumes at Coin.dance.
https://www.worldforexrates.com/btc/ves/1-exchange-rate/
Notice the price of one BTC, currently over 8,000,000,000 Bs, making it more than 700% more than back in April (bellow 1G - 1,000,000,000 Bs).
Ever heard of handbags made of fiat money? Venezuelans recycle worthless Bolivar bills into crafts:
Venezuelan supermarket Excelsior Gama recently started to accept Bitcoin and other crypto as a payment method (Using Cryptobuyer Pay). Excelsior Gama is a supermarket chain, their main locations are in Caracas - the capital of Venezuela.
Here is the announcement: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGsbrL0DkJg/
Plus Excelsior's website: https://excelsiorgama.com/
I'm a massive believer in Bitcoin, especially in poor countries where the governments keep printing money and indirectly create a second tax on all of their residents. In ten years time, I'm sure we'll see so much use in third world countries across the globe, not just in Latin America. Will keep you posted, if you have any question, ask in the comments, please.
Thank you guys for reading, liking, following, and tipping. Extremely appreciated! 👍
