Guide to bitcoin in Venezuela
Venezuela is breathing bitcoin (BTC). People buying and selling bitcoin in the beach country have propelled cryptocurrency markets to record levels among Latin American and Caribbean countries. Venezuelans have quickly become one of the user communities doing more P2P trading, and the country's adoption of bitcoin has led to the emergence of numerous cryptocurrency exchanges, which together are helping to make Venezuela one of the countries with the highest volume of trading on different markets.
Despite the crisis that the country has been going through for 20 years, those who have bet on the use of cryptocurrencies have highlighted the scale of emerging finance. As proof, consultancy Chainalysis has determined that Venezuela is the third country in terms of bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption, based on analysis of the value of transactions received and retail trade, including exchange in P2P (peer-to-peer) exchanges and the total number of cryptocurrency deposits.
Precisely P2P cryptocurrency exchanges, where you can buy and sell bitcoins in Venezuela, show the highest exchange figures in this part of the continent for more than 3 years. According to UsefulTulips, over the past six months Venezuela has traded more than $124 million on LocalBitcoins and Paxful (the latter to a lesser extent).
According to Vladislav Alimpiev, the company's Head of Community and Partnerships, up to $5 million is traded in Localbitcoins in Venezuela every week. In fact, during the most intense months of the crisis caused by the Covid pandemic, bitcoin exchanges did not decrease and are estimated to have exceeded remittances in the country by 40%.
In 2020, Venezuelans witnessed the arrival of the first reloadable Visa card with cryptocurrencies in the country and the adoption of bitcoin as a means of payment for many businesses, such as Pizza Hut, Excelsior Gama, Traki shops and others, across the country.
If you're looking for ways to buy and sell bitcoin in Venezuela, you can check out this list of different P2P exchanges, payment points, ATMs and social networking groups ideal for your cryptocurrency exchanges.
P2P exchanges for buying and selling bitcoins in Venezuela
In P2P and decentralised exchanges (DEX) operating in Venezuela, you'll find the ability to buy or sell bitcoins with a wide range of payment methods. In fact, on platforms like LocalBitcoins, it's common to find exchange listings that accept PayPal, bank transfers in and out of the country, US dollars in cash, Bitmain coupons, gift cards and goods like cars.
Among these types of exchanges designed for peer-to-peer trading, there are also different options depending on your interests. In most of them, you will find platforms that offer guarded wallets (meaning they keep the private keys of the wallets they offer) and in others, you can use your personal wallet or create one from scratch, which is ideal for people who want to have an extra level of privacy, security and sovereignty. In this CryptoNews article, you'll be able to examine the privacy of 5 P2P cryptocurrency exchanges and determine which one suits your needs.
Smart contracts are often used on these exchanges to protect transactions, with operations also known as escrow.
LocalBitcoins
LocalBitcoins is a P2P exchange founded in 2012 that has become a global benchmark for the volume of exchanges that flow through its network. In fact, 12% of the total volume exchanged on this platform is done in Venezuela and the network currently has 13,000 active users who exchange between 300 BTC and 500 BTC per week.
On LocalBitcoins, you can buy or sell bitcoins in Venezuela through ads that you can easily publish on the platform for others to see, as we explain in this CryptoNews tutorial. You can also search for other people's listings, which will allow you to exchange your bolivars via bank transfer, PayPal balance and any other currency your counterparty accepts.
- Cash and cryptocurrencies : BTC / VES.
- Commissions: 1% of the amount exchanged in each buy or sell advert / transfers between LocalBitcoins wallets are commission-free / deposit into an external wallet 0.00015 BTC; shipments to an external wallet 0.00005 BTC.
- Transaction volumes: between 4 and 5 million dollars per week.
LocalCryptos
LocalCryptos is one of the fastest-growing exchanges in recent years, with a presence in more than 100 countries. It was founded in 2017 under the name LocalEthereum and since then, the company has started to adopt more cryptocurrencies, with which you can trade swaps or exchanges between different blockchains.
Create your own standalone wallet from scratch or link your Ledger, MetaMask or Trust wallet to connect to the platform without having to enter a password or username, giving you extra security.
You can increase your chances of getting better deals by being able to import your reputation from LocalBitcoins or Paxful. You have a two-factor insurance and security contract system (2FA). With this CryptoNews tutorial, learn how to buy and sell bitcoins on LocalCryptos.
- Cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies : BTC, ETH, LTC, DASH / VES.
- Commissions: 0.25% to the maker and 0.75% to the taker.
- Transaction volumes: 100 BTC and 6,000 ETH stored in LocalCryptos wallets.
Hodl Hodl
Hodl Hodl was founded in 2016 in the UK as a P2P platform for buying and selling bitcoin through an escrow system with multiple signature contracts. Exchanges are made directly with external wallets, so the platform holds no private keys. What's more, in accordance with their privacy policy, you don't need to provide any documents to be able to carry out transactions.
With this tutorial on how to buy and sell bitcoin on Hodl Hodl, you can become an expert in no time.
- Cash and cryptocurrencies : BTC / VES.
- Commissions: Between 0.5% and 0.6% per transaction.
- Transaction volumes : No public data.
Binance P2P
Binance P2P began operations in October 2019 for users who prefer peer-to-peer trading. The service appeared on the company's website in 2020 and has spread throughout Latin America. Currently, its trading volume in the region already rivals long-established P2P exchanges.
Binance P2P allows you to create ads to buy or sell bitcoins in Venezuela in exchange for bank transfers in bolivars (VES), USD, Neteller and other cryptocurrencies.
- Cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies : BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, BUSD, DAI / VES.
- Commissions: Depending on transaction volume, between 0.02% and 0.1% (maker) and 0.04% and 0.1% (taker).
- Trading volume: 875,000 BTC / USD 42.8 billion (worldwide, including all Binance exchange markets).
LocalCoinSwap
LocalCoinSwap was founded in 2019 in Hong Kong. Its arrival in Venezuela was halted, but, since Paxful ceased operations in the country, it seems to have seen an upturn, since, according to the company, there has recently been a 230% increase in the number of new sessions.
On this platform, you can buy and sell bitcoins in Venezuela using a number of payment methods. These include bank transfers, PayPal, Skrill, Western Union or Amazon and iTunes gift cards.
It has a token called LCS which is used as a stake or share in the company (distributed in different ways), priced at USD 0.018, with a capitalisation of USD 960,000. 20% of the commission income is used to redeem this token and burn LCS.
- Cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies : BTC, ETC, DASH, USDT +10 / VES.
- Commissions: 1% of the traded moment on each ad.
- Transaction volumes : No public data.
CryptoWay
CryptoWay was founded in Costa Rica in early 2018 as an option to buy or sell bitcoin in Venezuela. It offers a guarded wallet and a collateral or escrow system to secure cryptocurrency exchanges. The security of funds, and therefore transactions, consists of storing them in offline wallets, which in principle represents an additional level of security against possible external attackers. You also have a two-factor authentication system to protect your sessions (and a third level of authentication for the most demanding users) and a dispute system if your counterparty fails to honour its agreement.
- Cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies : BTC, ETH, USDT, LTC, DASH, DOGE / VES.
- Commissions: 0.4% on trades. Only ETH and USDT have deposit fees and for withdrawals, they are variable.
- Trading volumes : No public data.
Bitcoin cards in Venezuela
Those who have thought about the possibility of using a reloadable card with cryptocurrencies already have the option launched by Cryptobuyer in 2020. This Visa card costs USD 40 and is free of maintenance fees for the first year. From the second year onwards, annual maintenance costs USD 15. There are no additional fees for payments at merchants, but each top-up costs 3%.
According to the company, the cryptocurrency reloadable Visa card is available in all Latin American countries and the US. Top-ups can be made with BTC, LTC, DASH, ETH and USDT, and it also accepts the local currencies that Cryptobuyer includes in its platform.
Buying and selling bitcoin in Venezuela without an intermediary
The rapid adoption of bitcoin in the Caribbean country has allowed bitcoin communities to organise quickly and prolifically on social networks. For this reason, it's easy to find bitcoin buying and selling groups in Venezuela with whom you can interact and do things as they were done in the beginning of everything: without exchange houses or intermediary companies.
In the networks, you can agree with anyone interested in your offer or look for someone to sell what you want. It's as simple as that. The important thing is to check the reputation of your counterpart.
So, you'll find groups on Telegram like the CryptoMarketVnzla service where you can quickly trade cryptocurrency balances. It only has one administrator, but it already has over 820 members and if you want to propose something, just talk to the administrator and work out a deal. There's also another group called FastVen which has some movement and over 800 members, although cryptocurrency exchanges are sometimes dependent on the availability of their single seller and are generally slower than the others.
On Facebook, there is an interesting community that incorporates Bitcoin Venezuela, with over 12,000 members. Other groups, a little more informal, but with rules for placing ads, offer smaller communities on this social network. It is precisely these small groups that characterise the way people organise themselves on WhatsApp and Instagram.
