After five years this will be probably my last update in the matter now that LocalBitcoins is shutting now, 29 BTC were traded last week in Venezuela and now monthly minimum wage is around 5 USD!

Hi guys as every sunday, I like to post this here too:

Hi guys, this has been a long journey but all journey come to an end. I say probably because the data posted by CoinDance (my source) has one week lag so maybe we will get data next week (and maybe I will do some recaps).

But still even when LocalBitcoins will work for more 4 days, now that it announced it was shutting down people already stopped using it.

We had great weeks with over 2k BTC traded in one WEEK years ago!

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Traded BTC since 2018. Source CoinDance

For us Venezuelans, LocalBitcoins will have a special place because when the government was really hard exchanging bolivares to any other country (it was forbidden by law), we found a windows in LocalBitcoins.

Time passed and alternatives like AirTM, Binance, Reserve came out and LocalBitcoins started losing its userbase with only some hardcore fans. Also they never updated or got an smartphone app.

These hardcore users will move probably to Binance (where there is P2P, bolivares to BTC).

Let's see what happens with other alternatives like Bisq. I wonder if the traded volume is open information?

LocalBitcoins was nice because the public data. Binance, AirTM and others do make public anything so, we will never know.

One BTC traders around 550,000 Bs. (Bolivares). Doesn't seems to be that high considering the inflation, but government did a trick and has removed 14 zeroes from the currency since 2007.

Monthly minimum wage is 130 Bs. (around 5 USD) and average is around 120 USD. Living here is a problem, one whole chicken in more than one month of work (at minimum wage).

Inflation is around 300% yearly, way lower than before.

People use crypto to avoid inflation, receive remittances, exchange mining profits (as I always say, electricity is free for now) and just as a form of payment.

Any question, let me know!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Venezuela

https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VED/BTC

https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins/VED

https://localbitcoins.com/country/VE

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelan-teachers-march-better-pay-amid-sky-high-inflation-2023-01-16/?utm_source=reddit.com