Venezuela update. 35 BTC were traded last week only measured using LocalBitcoin (up from 28 BTC last week), goverments wants to tax crypto transactions up to 20% and still, monthly minimum wage is around 2 USD! One BTC is around 190,000 BS (Bolivares), af

As you know I usually post this weekly update. I'm a Venezuelan living here, a crypto enthusiast.

There was a increase from last week, very interesting biggest traded amount since September 2021!.

Years ago, LocalBitcoin was trading over 500 BTC weekly. Situation changed (BTC price went up and new exchanges arrived, more user friendly and aimed towars us Venezuelans).

Biggest exchange currently is Binance, is the king even allowing P2P with Bolivares (Bs). Reserve, AirTM and Uphold are used too! Sadly none of these offer public stats.

People use crypto to avoid inflation, save, get remittances from abroad and exchange mining profits.

There are a lot of people mining here, in theory electricity is free but unreliable. Is legal but still, with this goverment you never know and they have seized and put to jail miners doing it totally under the law.

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• Yes, monthly minimum wage is 2 USD that is for public workers (called starvation salary, read the article in the sources) and they receive some kind of incentives (a monthly box of food that is around 20 USD), but you cannot "live" with that. People do side jobs or depend of a family with better money or from abroad. If you had noone of that, you probably left the country years ago (Even by walking to Colombia)
• Average monthly wage is around 90 USD (Monthly). A Manager is around 210 USD (monthly). https://talcualdigital-com.translate.goog/ovf-salario-promedio-del-sector-comercio-subio-un-71-a-892-durante-2021/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
• Some NGO say around 500 USD monthly are needed for a 5 members family to "live".
• There are in fact so many places (department stores, big ones like Traki, Biomercados) where you can pay directly with crypto. People always use stablecoins like "USDT" (what a fear), USDC, BUSD, AirUSD and so on.
• 2021 inflation was around 700%, in 2018 it was over 1,000,000% (yes, that is true). They lowered it almost FORBIDING credit (it's common to have gold VISA credit card with less than 1 USD limit).
• They want to tax now crypto transations up to 20% (looks like they will start with 3%)

Any question even if it seems stupid, feel free to ask.

Some sources:

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210611-venezuela-s-public-sector-surviving-on-starvation-salary

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

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

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2020/10/23/you-need-285-minimum-wages-in-venezuela-to-feed-your-family/

https://localbitcoins.com/country/VE

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-venezuela-cafe-con-leche-index/