The sector of the cryptocurrencies faces in Venezuela a series of weaknesses related to services, legislation and educationwhich plays against its development in the country, where these virtual currencies are used, basically, as a reserve of value, while their weight in commercial transactions remains reduced and without growth, according to experts.
While inflation has slowed, for “Many people do not see the point” of keeping their money in bolivars, and prefer to exchange it for another currency to protect their purchasing power. One of those options is cryptocurrencies,” Economist Aaron Olmos, a specialist in the area, explains to EFE.
“Venezuelans do not use them at a transactional level, but rather as a savings reserve element,” says the university professor. In this way, citizens protect their money from “the onslaught of the economic situation”he points out.
The use of cryptocurrencies for commercial payments “has decreased compared to previous years”mainly, 2018 and 2019, when “There was a boom” and “Many companies began to accept them as a form of payment.”
According to the firm Ecoanalítica – which prepares periodic studies to measure transactions in businesses in the country – payments in cryptocurrencies are equivalent to 1.2% of the total, a figure that has remained constant since 2022.
It is a percentage “quite marginal and low” reflecting the “educational barriers regarding the management of the cryptocurrency ecosystem”economist Asdrúbal Oliveros, director of Ecoanalítica, explains to EFE.
“These are not methodologies or payment systems that are so widespread in the population, nor that merchants are familiar with,” adds.
Inflection point
In 2023, Venezuela ranked 40th out of 155 countries in Chainalysis’ Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, behind other Latin American countries such as Colombia (32), Mexico (16), Argentina (15) and Brazil (9)-, when in 2021 it was ranked seventh on the world list. In 2022 it did not appear in the ranking.
The turning point in the sector was the restructuring of the Superintendency of Cryptoassets and Related Activities (Sunacrip), ordered by the Government in 2023 after the PDVSA-Crypto corruption plot was revealed, for which 67 people were arrested, including the then Minister of Petroleum Tareck El Aissami and the head of the superintendency Joselit Ramírez.
Since the blow to that plot, Olmos indicated, all companies with a license to operate “they remain intervened and suspended,” and without activities or income. Some of them “have practically disappeared.”
In March 2024, Venezuelan authorities extended the deadline for the restructuring process by six more months.
Limitations
Despite this, there are still operators who “They continue working”, Among them, those who are dedicated to ‘trading’ (buying and selling), although with certain limitations specific to Venezuela, such as power cuts, which hinder the development of “a largely digital economy”comments Aaron Olmos.
Among the factors that work against the development of the cryptocurrency market are also the lack of training and ignorance in the use of tools for transactions.
“Our educational training centers are not 100% open to talking about the crypto topic. We still see some resistance to explaining these topics”comments the economist.
On the other hand, Venezuelan regulations “has complicated the activity of operators” and creates obstacles for them to carry out their functions, the specialist adds.
To this we must add the distrust derived from “bad experiences” with the use of ‘Petro’a “cryptocurrency” which was launched by the Government in 2017 and is now in disuse.
He ‘Petro’ It was used by the Executive to pay pensions and bonuses, set processing costs, collect subsidized gasoline and some services, but is not currently used.
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Source: Gestion
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