What role did cryptocurrency and the petro play in stabilizing or replacing the bolívar?
Executive summary
Venezuelans have increasingly bypassed the bolívar with cryptocurrencies for daily transactions and remittances as the currency plunged — USD/VES hit about 245,362.6 on 1 Dec 2025 and the bolívar fell more than 415% over 12 months to that date [1]. The government-created petro was launched in 2018 to “advance monetary sovereignty,” but reporting and analyst sources show it failed to become a viable substitute and had little uptake compared with market crypto such as USDT and Bitcoin [2] [3] [4].
1. The bolívar’s collapse created the demand that crypto filled
Hyperinflation and steep exchange-rate losses made holding bolívares unattractive; trading platforms show the bolívar lost more than 415% in a year and traded at about 245,362.6 per USD on 1 December 2025 [1]. That environment pushed Venezuelans toward dollarization and digital alternatives: ordinary people and freelancers increasingly use foreign currency or stablecoins to protect savings and to convert payments into bolívares when needed [5] [4].
2. The petro: political instrument with limited practical success
Nicolás Maduro introduced the petro as a state-issued token in 2018, claiming it would be backed by oil and other reserves and would allow new financing options for Venezuela [2] [6]. Opposition bodies and analysts rejected it as an illegal debt issuance and warned Venezuelans could not access the initial offering; governments and exchanges did not widely accept it [2] [3]. Independent reporting notes the petro project “collapsed” by 2024, and it did not become a mainstream medium of exchange [4].
3. Private crypto markets — the practical substitute
Instead of the petro, Venezuelans turned to market cryptos and stablecoins to transact and move value. Journalistic reporting and on-the-ground accounts describe people using platforms like Binance and converting dollars to USDT to buy bolívares or to receive payments from abroad, saving on exchange spreads and avoiding some frictions of official channels [5] [4]. Crypto usage rose as the government “stopped defending the currency” and the bolívar lost large chunks of value in 2025 [4].
4. Why the petro failed where market crypto succeeded
Experts and think tanks noted practical barriers: the petro was inaccessible to ordinary Venezuelans, initial sales were restricted, and independent verification of funds raised was weak — undermining confidence [3]. The petro also faced political and legal limits: Venezuela’s opposition and external sanctions made conversion and acceptance difficult, while US executive action in 2018 banned transactions in Venezuelan government-issued crypto for US persons, curbing international use [6] [2].
5. Government goals vs. citizen incentives
The Maduro government framed the petro as a tool to regain “monetary sovereignty” and evade financial blockades, linking it to state revenue streams like oil and minerals [2] [6]. Citizens, by contrast, sought stability and liquidity; they favored globally traded stablecoins and dollars over a token tied explicitly to the state that they could not reliably convert or trust [3] [5].
6. Mixed official signaling and market realities
Government rhetoric promoted petro-based peg concepts and occasional steps to tether policy to it, but outside observers and markets did not follow. Analysts say the petro never became a sovereign substitute and that no functioning mechanism existed to exchange petros for other currencies at scale [2] [3]. Meanwhile, day-to-day commerce and remittances migrated toward crypto exchanges and digital dollarization despite sanctions and connectivity hurdles [5] [4].
7. Limitations and open questions in reporting
Sources confirm the petro’s intent and political reception and document the growth of market crypto use, but available sources do not provide precise nationwide measures of petro holdings, nor detailed breakdowns of how much crypto replaced bolívares in retail transactions versus remittances [2] [4] [5]. Reports also differ on the timeline of collapse and the extent to which government policy still references the petro [2] [4].
8. What to watch next
Monitor exchange-rate dynamics and remittance flows: if the bolívar continues to slide (official rates passed 100 VES/USD in June 2025 and 200 by October 2025 in other reporting), crypto adoption will likely deepen [7] [1]. Watch for changes in sanctions or platform policies — restrictions by major exchanges or new U.S. actions could alter Venezuelans’ access to offshore liquidity [6] [4].
Sources cited above: trading and exchange-rate data [1], petro background and critiques [2] [6] [3], reporting on household crypto adoption and bolívar substitution [5] [4], and historical exchange-rate context [7].