Every two weeks, Ernesto Sánchez, a 25-year-old from Caracas, does his shopping at the same supermarket chain near his home. But this time, as he moves along in the checkout line, he notices something different: on the sign listing accepted payment methods—in addition to bolivars, dollars, and euros—a new option appears: “Pay using Binance USD,” the sign reads. This isn’t an isolated incident, but rather part of a much broader phenomenon. In Venezuela, the use of cryptocurrencies—especially stablecoins, that is, cryptocurrencies whose value remains stable because they are pegged to a fixed asset like the dollar—has grown exponentially throughout 2025, positioning the country among the top 20 in the world with the highest adoption of these payment instruments. And, more than surprising, this confirms the obvious: money in Venezuela has mutated once again.
From the Bitcoin rush to the stableboom
But the current boom is not the country’s first crypto chapter, not by a long shot. “Venezuela has been a crypto country since 2012,” explains Aarón Olmos, an economist, professor at the Metropolitan University of Caracas, and expert in digital economics. “Many people sought alternatives to protect themselves from the loss of value of their money […] and began working on issues related to Bitcoin.”
During the years of highest inflation, a sort of crypto rush —to use the expression from the US gold rush— emerged in the country around Bitcoin. Small farms and large mining and exchange complexes sprang up, all growing in a poorly regulated environment sustained largely by low electricity costs. And indeed, using current benchmarks, Venezuela’s price per kWh is 0.05 dollars, compared to 0.18 dollars in the US and 0.43 dollars in Germany: very attractive price differences for operations that require servers to run continuously.
But that model had clear limits, because with the power cuts to mining facilities and the subsequent state regulation of crypto assets, the scale of the first Venezuelan crypto rushsoon found its physical and institutional boundary.
Therefore, even though Bitcoin reached its peak price in 2025, the dominant cryptocurrency in Venezuela is no longer Bitcoin, but stablecoins: less volatile crypto assets pegged to the value of the US dollar. Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD) have become the most common in this new landscape.
“The main reason why the market has turned so much to crypto has to do with the changes that have occurred in the allocations in the foreign exchange market,” explains economist Jesús Palacios Chacín.
According to Reuters, PDVSA had been planning since last year to accelerate the use of cryptocurrencies—particularly USDT—for its crude oil and fuel exports. But after the new licenses granted to Chevron, the state-owned oil company finally accepted USDT as a means of payment, incorporating it into its transactions with suppliers as well. As a result, a large portion of the foreign currency settlements from Chevron and PDVSA’s revenues shifted from traditional dollars to USDT.
This change had a direct impact on the financial system. Estimates indicate that currently only 20% of foreign exchange transactions go through banks—whereas just a few months ago it was 100%. “Banks have largely lost profitability from foreign exchange operations,” said another source consulted. “And furthermore, the volume of bolivars that used to go out to acquire those dollars—and which [previously] remained within the banking system itself—is now flowing directly to crypto platforms. This presents a challenge for the banking sector, which must reinvent itself in a market where credit growth is very slow.”
On the other hand, the remaining 80% of foreign exchange settlements are delivered via stablecoins, accumulating an estimated $800 million by 2025, according to consulting and research firm Ecoanalítica. The consequence is a rapid increase in USDT and USDC in circulation, with transactions no longer limited to the oil sector but permeating the rest of the economy.
Trickle-down cryptonomics
Both Palacios Chacín and Olmos agree that stablecoinshave become a store of value for many Venezuelans, especially those without US bank accounts or easy access to cash dollars. Olmos even compares their expansion to the BNPL platform Cashea phenomenon: “It has started appearing in the most remote and unusual places you can imagine,” he says, “Suddenly, people are accepting Cashea as a form of payment.”
Sánchez’s case illustrates this well. In addition to what happened at the supermarket, a couple of months ago he had to pay for a medical operation with USDT. “The doctor was having some problems [with his US bank account], I didn’t have any cash dollars, and he didn’t want bolivars,” he recalls. “He asked me if I used cryptocurrency, and since I do, we agreed that I would pay him in USDT. And that’s what happened.”
A survey conducted at the Metropolitan University of Caracas reflects this trend, with 70% of the sample —more than 400 university students, representing a significant age and socioeconomic bias— using USDT. They cited reasons for using it such as transactions, saving, and investing, and reported satisfaction with its use in over 75% of cases.
More generally, one in ten Venezuelans uses cryptocurrencies, according to data from Aníbal Garrido, director of the Blockchain Trading and Cryptoassets Academy at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas. The market totals more than 100 million dollars per month, figures surpassed in the region only by Brazil —a country with a population ten times larger.
Stablecoins arealso gaining ground among businesses. In a challenging environment, they are attractive for protecting the purchasing power of assets, income, and savings, especially when dealing with less volatile assets like USDT or USDC. “They are agile, fast, easy, and commission-free payment mechanisms, removing those elements from the traditional financial system,” notes Palacios Chacín. “They also have the ability to track the origin of the funds.”
And its business use extends even to those who don’t accept it as a form of payment. “[As a company] you can turn to your suppliers, the international market, or different players who will probably accept it as a valid form of payment in transactions to cover a difference or a shortfall,” says Olmos.
Towards greater digitalization
The rise of stablecoinsalso presents challenges. Olmos warns that a large portion of the population remains “functionally digitally illiterate”—that is, people with access to smart digital tools, but who only use them for very basic tasks. This educational gap clashes with the pace of crypto adoption, which demands a higher level of understanding to avoid problems.
Economist Leonardo Vera offers another perspective on the matter, because—although he acknowledges that stablecoins offer hedging and a promising future—he points out that they carry risks that often go unnoticed, such as the fact that investing in an asset pegged to the dollar implies exposure to a dollar that also fluctuates, and whose parity can break down if the issuer does not maintain sufficient liquid reserves, for example.
It also points to structural risks stemming from centralization, as issuers can freeze funds, their reserves may be opaque, and the high market concentration —with Tether controlling 70%— creates vulnerabilities. Added to this are regulatory, hacking, operational, and infrastructure risks, with episodes like the TerraUSD collapse highlighting flaws and contagion in unsupported models.
But despite these global risks, everyday use in Venezuela follows a different logic. What’s happening in Venezuela isn’t a technological revolution, but an economic adaptation: the same old resolver, but now with new tools that intertwine traditional finance with the digital ecosystem, from the foreign exchange market to everyday purchases, encompassing countless business activities along the way. In this country, even the economy has found its own on-chain workaround.
