Venezuelan Bolivar LocalBitcoins Volume Breaks New Heights While Maduro Keeps Advertising His Own Coin

The Venezuelan Bolivar is on a downward spiral, reaching inflation of 2 million percent and expected to reach 8 million percent by the year’s end.

To combat inflation, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has been promoting his state-issued cryptocurrency, the Petro coin (PTR), despite international sanctions. However, despite Maduro’s promotional efforts, Venezuelans are purchasing Bitcoin (BTC), not Petro coin.

The P2P trading platform LocalBitcoins has experienced explosive trade volume in Venezuela, recording new highs in trade volume week after week since late 2018.

Is the Petro Coin Failing?

On April 25, Maduro presented a live statement on the video streaming platform, Periscope, where he issued a plea to anyone with hard currency to exchange it for Petro cryptocurrency.

He said:

“We welcome all those who will invest in finance and banking sectors, and in the cryptocurrency Petro.”

As previously reported by IIB, the US has issued international sanctions that prevent US citizens from purchasing the Petro coin. The coin is largely viewed as a scam by anyone with any knowledge in the cryptocurrency space, and it is suffering from a lack of liquidity due to vast disinterest.

While Maduro is issuing open calls for foreign investors to buy his state-backed cryptocurrency, it’s likely that his coin will fail just as the Venezuelan economy did under his administration.

Do you think citizens in other countries will start to buy Bitcoin as a hedge against the potential of their economy failing? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.