The post Venezuela locals turn to stablecoins to offset inflation appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Venezuela once again turned to stablecoins to offset the instability of its currency. The country has been known for crypto usage, but in 2026, stablecoin access is even easier.  Venezuelans are rushing to stablecoins as a tool to offset inflation. Once again, the US military intervention in Venezuela pushed locals into cryptocurrency.  Venezuela’s crypto adoption index is close to that of Germany, and the country has had multiple rounds of crypto usage, including through P2P platforms. USDT usage is also happening through unofficial exchange rates with the Bolivar, circumventing the government’s own less favorable official exchange rate.  Stablecoins are also the technology that is used in an already dollarized economy. In the past years, merchants adopted stablecoins as a regular payment tool in the country. Venezuela’s retail usage diverges from the government’s USDT transfers Now, stablecoins are even more accessible through multiple platforms and wallets. Stablecoins are dollarizing the crypto space and whole economies, and are often selected for their predictable price. In the past years, stablecoins displaced BTC and ETH for everyday usage.  ‘Stablecoins are better dollars, but the reason people get them is out of necessity and out of self-preservation,’ Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of digital asset lender Ledn, told CNBC. ‘Wherever they have limitations around dollars flowing freely, stablecoins are going to bust through the door,’ he said. The adoption of USDT in Venezuela started over a decade ago. Retail usage is diverging from the state’s own adoption of USDT. Based on recent reports, Venezuela uses TRON-based USDT for its oil revenues.  Recently, $182M of those USDT reserves were frozen just days after the country’s President Maduro was arrested by US forces. There are no direct links of the wallets to the petro trade, and Tether is yet to mention which wallets were frozen. However, large-scale USDT…

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Filed under: News - @ January 19, 2026 5:28 pm