Venezuelan Migrants Are Using Bitcoin for Remittances, But There’s a Catch

As reported by CoinDesk, “In 2018, Deimer González packed his college diploma, clothes and a mobile wallet with 1.5 BTC in savings and left Venezuela. What unfolded throughout 2019 offers a microcosm for Venezuelan bitcoin users around the world.

“As a mechanical engineer from Caracas, formerly employed by Venezuela’s state-owned oil and natural gas company (PDVSA), González told CoinDesk that those very same savings allowed him to support his parents as he started to build a new life in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“’I was always able to send money back thanks to my savings, sparing my wages in pesos,’ he said.

“With an estimated $3.7 billion in remittances sent in 2019, money from abroad is an increasingly large source of income for Venezuelan families. As such, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have assumed a larger role in facilitating cross-border transactions.

“Additionally, migrants are using crypto during the relocation process itself, since it’s often hard for jobless immigrants to access financial services in their new countries.

“Such is the case with Wolfang Barrios, a trader from Caracas who told CoinDesk about his experience arriving in Chile without savings in the local currency. Said Barrios:

“’I didn’t have a stable job, enough money or a bank account. I could send the remittances only using crypto.’

“Plus, supporting a family in Venezuela isn’t easy, even with dollars. In May, Venezuelan economist Luis Oliveros placed the cost of living in the country as high as $900 a month for a family of five, with a basic food basket costing roughly $300 a month. For context, the minimum wage in Venezuela is currently equivalent to $15 a month, though economists suspect this rate won’t last long…”

Continue to read the full story at CoinDesk.

Track the current price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and altcoins here.