Venezuelans Sent Over $460 Million in Remittances Using Crypto in 2023

The Venezuelan migrant population, now exceeding 7 million, has used crypto to send over $460 million in remittances to the ones left behind in the country. According to Chainalysis, 30% of Venezuelan households received some form of remittance in 2023, with 9% using crypto as rails to reach their receivers efficiently.

Venezuelan Migrants Sent Almost 10% of Their Remittances Using Crypto

Remittances have become a lifeline for the Venezuelans left in the country, as migrants have consistently sent money to the ones left behind. According to data from the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela recently reviewed by Bloomberg, over 7.7 million Venezuelans have migrated to other latitudes seeking better economic conditions.

These migrants sent over $5.5 billion in remittances in 2023, using mostly unofficial intermediaries with bank accounts in the origin countries and Venezuela. These numbers make Venezuela one of the largest remittance-receiving countries in South America. Chainalysis stated that 9%, or over $461 million, arrived in Venezuelan hands using cryptocurrency rails.

Over 30% of Venezuelan households receive some help via remittances, and this is only poised to increase. According to Manuel Orozco, director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development program at the Inter-American Dialogue, the number of Venezuelans using remittances has jumped by at least 50%. “It’s not a higher percentage because the rest of the migrants cannot yet afford to send money,” he assessed.

Venezuelans seek cryptocurrencies with low transfer fees to send these remittances to the tech-savvy in the country, who then use stablecoins like USDT to store them and exchange them in peer-to-peer markets for bolivars, the national fiat currency. Also, some stores accept these stablecoins, so they can directly spend them on groceries and other goods.

Venezuela has been one of the South American countries with higher cryptocurrency adoption. Even government companies like PDVSA, the state-owned oil company, are already using stablecoins to settle payments, sidestepping difficulties derived from Western sanctions.

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