According to recent statistics, over 20% of the visitors of the popular P2P crypto trading platform LocalBitcoins, are seemingly coming from Venezuela. Similar reports have been stating the same for a while now, not just for Venezuela, but for the majority of Latin American countries.
A number of them are currently experiencing hyperinflation, and while their native fiat currencies continue to lose value, countries like Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile are turning to Bitcoin.
LocalBitcoins is a peer to peer veteran platform, founded in 2012. Since then, it has become one of the most popular websites of this kind. The new statistics show that Venezuelans make up for around 20.09% of the LocalBitcoin’s estimated 4.82 million visits.
While the SimiliarWeb data figures are only estimated and not 100% accurate as Google Analytics, the data still reveal that a high number of Venezuela’s citizens are seeking to buy cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin.
Venezuela is also the country that has suffered the most due to hyperinflation, with its national fiat currency, the bolivar, becoming practically worthless. The country also launched its native cryptocurrency, Petro, which is backed by Venezuela’s oil reserves.
According to a recent report, Venezuela’s turn to crypto has also been rapidly growing in the last two years. The Bitcoin purchases by the country’s citizens have increased 460% compared to January 2017, whereas other Latin American countries are also not far behind.
Countries plagued with hyperinflation seem to be finding economic stability even in a highly-volatile Bitcoin, which still holds better than the local declining FIAT currencies, such as in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price is experiencing problems of its own, together with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, as the bull run that started around ten days ago suddenly saw a severe $500 decline, and was replaced by a robust bearish presence.