As Venezuela Goes ‘Full Crypto’, Bitcoin Trading Volumes Surge

Bitcoin trading volumes have skyrocketed in Venezuela. According to figures from P2P trading platform Localbitcoins, over 1,700 BTC have changed hands in the last two weeks, a 19% rise compared since the start of the month.

Commenting on the figures, Purse.io head of support Eduardo Gómez called the spike “huge” and criticized claims that Dash had become a unit of account for countries in South America.

“Snake oil. Nobody uses it for payments down here,” replied Gomez to a Twitter user who asked about Dash’s acceptance in South America.

Huge spikes in trading volume on LocalBitcoin Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/7z79UxFPqt — ⚡Eduardo⚡ (@Codiox) October 3, 2018

A Dashing Rise in Trading Volumes

During the peak of Venezuela’s economic crisis, Dash Core Group CEO Ryan Taylor said Venezuela is the altcoin’s “second biggest market”. In an interview for Business Insider, Taylor claimed that brands such as Subway and Calvin Klein had started accepting Dash in the hyper-inflation ridden country.

“We have seen the number of dash-accepting merchant sign-ups accelerate throughout the crisis,” he added. “I believe that trend will continue.”

Meanwhile, Bitcoin has caught up with Dash, marking the biggest seven-day trade volumes by Venezuelans, outrunning even April’s spike of 805 BTC. Bitcoin’s average trading volume for the last two weeks is 888 BTC.

To put these numbers into perspective, over the course of the week ending September 29, Venezuelans traded $10,331,274.54 in BTC. The average monthly income for the same period was $49.

These transformations come days after Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro appeared on national TV to announce the launch of trading for Petro, the country’s own cryptocurrency. Although the oil-and-gold-pegged altcoin holds the title of most successful ICO ever, raising over $5 billion, many have criticized the cryptocurrency for being a conduit for political moves and money laundering.

With the release of Petro’s whitepapers, experts have criticized the pegged coin for being a carbon copy of Dash. On Twitter, Ethereum developer Joey Zhou pointed out certain sections of Petro’s whitepapers have been stolen from Dash’ documentation, including the diagram below.

The government has still moved on with their plans to promote Petro adoption, which has been deemed an official alternate currency in the country. Other cryptocurrencies remain illegal in the South American country.