Bitcoin Is In Demand In Venezuela As Banks Halted Services

The report states that due to the Coronavirus outbreak, banks in Venezuela are shutting down their doors. People are finding Bitcoin as an alternative solution for increasing trading volumes.

Coronavirus is not the only problem in Venezuela as it is facing many other issues like political unrest, hyperinflation, and economic turmoil. Coronavirus is just the addition to the problems which have put the strain on the banking system.

Due to the shutdown of physical banks in Venezuela, there has been emerging in digital asset trading. On twitter, the founder of Mythos Capital, Ryan Sean Adams said, that banking operations are discontinued affecting 32 million people and later added with a note that online banking services are also not available. According to Johns Hopkins University tracker, Venezuela has report 65 cases of COVID-19.

President Nicolas Maduro announced the quarantine for the whole country to slow down the spread of the virus. With these steps, the government believes that it will minimize the burden on its health system. Last Friday, the president also ordered to close all businesses and set up roadblocks to limit movements.

The adoption of Venezuela’s oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency is also been affected by the threat of coronavirus. Back in January, Maduro tried to boost Petro as he announced the launch of a Petro-powered casino and the fuel sale for international flights to be conducted using the cryptocurrency.

The citizens of Venezuela are not supporting Petro but favor Bitcoins. The Coin Dance report states, that there had been an increase in trading of bolivar to BTC.

Thereby, bitcoin’s trading volume is trending in the country, where Localbitcoins reports the price above 500 million VES. The price here is higher by $800 than the current BTC price.

As a result, the closure of banking services has worked in favor of Bitcoin.