Venezuelan exchanges turn to dollar stablecoins as U.S. restrictions squeeze economy

Venezuela is turning to dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies to shore up its foreign exchange market as US sanctions choke oil revenues and reduce the availability of hard ￰0￱ government has quietly allowed private businesses to buy and sell USDT, a stablecoin issued by Tether that mirrors the US dollar, in a bid to keep trade moving and maintain supplies of imported goods ranging from machinery to ￰1￱ shrink Venezuela’s dollar pool For years, Venezuelan companies seeking to import raw materials relied on central bank interventions to access dollars derived from oil ￰2￱ that channel has narrowed as the United States tightened restrictions on the Nicolás Maduro ￰3￱ last month renewed a limited license for Chevron to ship Venezuelan crude after a three-month pause but prohibited payments directly to ￰4￱ move reduced the flow of dollars available in the official exchange market, compounding the squeeze from lower oil ￰5￱ in July fell 10% from the previous month, according to vessel tracking ￰6￱ Venezuelan central bank has poured about $2 billion into the currency market in the first seven months of 2025, 14% less than in the same period last year, according to private estimates.

“The availability of exchange always has a ceiling,” said lawmaker Orlando Camacho, who leads a guild of medium-sized companies close to the ruling ￰7￱ US dollars getting scarcer, businesses have increasingly turned to digital ￰8￱ flow in the marketplace Since June, the government has been permitted to sell USDT to companies in exchange for bolívars, Venezuela’s battered local currency, according to people familiar with the ￰9￱ buyers must hold a government-approved digital wallet, where the crypto is credited before being used to pay suppliers or resold in private transactions. Ecoanalítica, a Venezuelan analyst firm, estimates that businesses bought roughly $119 million worth of cryptocurrencies in ￰10￱ expect the figure to rise as sanctions persist and oil inflows remain limited.

“When one operation closes, others open,” one businessperson reportedly said regarding the new reliance on stablecoins. Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez has acknowledged the use of “non-traditional mechanisms of management in the exchange market” in recent meetings with business leaders, though she stopped short of naming crypto ￰11￱ failed petro to entrenched Tether The embrace of stablecoins marks a new chapter in Venezuela’s fraught relationship with digital ￰12￱ government launched its own token, the petro, in 2018 to much fanfare, billing it as an oil-backed cryptocurrency that could anchor the ￰13￱ was quietly abandoned after failing to attract users or ￰14￱ time, the state is not pushing its own product but leaning on a dollar proxy that already circulates ￰15￱ to the Financial Times , crypto use across Venezuela surged 110% in the 12 months since ￰16￱ Tether itself has faced scrutiny over its role in sanctioned ￰17￱ company has said it complies with the U.

S. Treasury’s list of banned entities and did not comment directly on Venezuelan usage this ￰18￱ now, stablecoins offer Caracas a breathing ￰19￱ allowing limited, regulated use of USDT, the government can ease pressure on businesses while conserving scarce physical dollars for its own ￰20￱ up to $30,050 in trading rewards when you join Bybit today