Venezuela Survival Record! 10% of food bought with USDT, mining paradise becomes a restricted area

Walking through downtown Caracas, shopkeepers directly point to USDT payment codes, as bolívares are almost useless. By the end of 2025, 10% of food and 40% of trading transactions will be conducted with cryptocurrencies. In 2023, the PDVSA corruption scandal erupted, with 20 billion USD embezzled by officials through USDT. The government shut down all national mining farms citing the power grid, confiscating tens of thousands of devices, turning the mining paradise into a forbidden zone.

USDT becomes a survival tool in the cryptocurrency vacuum

After the Petro was officially phased out in 2024, Venezuela’s physical and online transactions rapidly dollarized with cryptocurrencies, and stablecoins became the tacit currency for small payments. During President Chávez’s tenure, Venezuela experienced multiple resource shortages, and after 2005, a severe famine due to food import shortages. Over the next decade, under Maduro’s leadership, the country faced food shortages of 50% to 80%, with residents sometimes hunting in the wild to fill their stomachs.

Years of hyperinflation rendered official fiat currency nearly unusable for daily purchases, with denominations often exceeding millions. Facing the collapse of the national currency, people increasingly turned to USDT, a relatively stable cryptocurrency, which truly entered Venezuelans’ daily lives because the black market for food and gasoline only accepts such cryptocurrencies. Despite being a country with possibly the largest oil reserves in the world, gasoline is often unavailable, and only the capital’s gas station remains operational.

As the market long anticipated the Trump administration’s potential tightening of Western Union remittances, USDT was seen as the last available cross-border channel. From buying black market bread to life-saving medicines, people rely on USDT. US investigative firms found that many street vendors immediately convert their daily earnings into small amounts of cash, keeping only enough for daily expenses, while the rest of their stablecoins are stored directly in mobile wallets. For them, Bitcoin is a long-term savings asset, while USDT is a means of survival.

According to Chainalysis data, Venezuela ranks around 17th in global cryptocurrency adoption. By the end of 2025, up to 10% of grocery payments and nearly 40% of peer-to-peer transactions will be conducted with cryptocurrencies. Additionally, remittances via stablecoins account for nearly 10% of total inflows. These figures are among the highest in Latin America, demonstrating that cryptocurrencies have shifted from speculative tools to essential survival resources.

From mining paradise to militarized forbidden zone

Venezuela was once a major Bitcoin mining hub in South America, thanks to its extremely cheap electricity. Government subsidies made electricity nearly free, attracting a large influx of miners. However, the government’s attitude toward cryptocurrencies sharply shifted following the 2023 PDVSA-Crypto corruption scandal.

PDVSA corruption scandal and policy reversal

Core facts of the corruption case

· Former Petroleum Minister Tareck El Aissami and regulatory officials accepted USDT payments for oil sales

· Up to 20 billion USD unaccounted for in national treasury

· Only a few mnemonic phrases remain, but the private keys are lost

· This infuriated President Maduro

Government retaliatory policies

· In January 2024, the Petro was declared defunct

· Citing “stabilizing the power grid,” the government militarized and shut down all national mining farms

· Tens of thousands of devices were confiscated and seized

· Private mining overnight shifted from gray to criminal activity

Contradictory policy logic

· Private mining is harshly suppressed as a crime

· State-owned oil company PDVSA continues to force USDT payments for exports

· High-level officials continue to use crypto channels to transfer assets

· Citizens are oppressed, while the government embraces on-chain US dollar transactions

At that time, Venezuela’s former Petroleum Minister Tareck El Aissami and regulatory officials used USDT to accept payments for state oil sales, with up to 20 billion USD unaccounted for in the treasury. Only a few mnemonic phrases remain, but the private keys are lost, provoking President Maduro’s fury. In January 2024, the Venezuelan government immediately declared the end of the Petro and militarized the shutdown of all crypto mining farms nationwide, seizing tens of thousands of devices.

Overnight, the country once touted as having the lowest global mining costs turned into a high-risk forbidden zone. However, the government’s tough stance did not extend to state operations. To bypass the intensified sanctions by the Trump administration in 2025, the state oil company PDVSA instead mandated USDT payments in export contracts. Private mining became criminalized, yet the on-chain US dollar remained a vital lifeline, revealing a policy contradiction.

Two parallel tracks: survival of civilians and government money laundering

Venezuela’s current financial landscape runs along two parallel lines. The first is a grassroots stablecoin ecosystem, where Venezuelans quickly convert USDT sent from overseas relatives into payments for children’s education, medical expenses, and food within minutes. Street vendors also use crypto wallets to maintain asset stability. This decentralized financial system completely bypasses government control, demonstrating the resilience of decentralized technology in extreme environments.

The second is the government and state enterprises’ large-scale on-chain US dollar transactions, with flows crossing U.S. regulatory radar, greatly weakening sanctions. This phenomenon reflects the essence of blockchain currency: it can help high officials transfer massive assets with government backing, while also protecting ordinary citizens from currency collapse. In Venezuela, the narrative of Bitcoin as digital gold is being reinterpreted into a choice of accessible financial products.

In the coming months, several indicators are worth watching. If the U.S. further restricts remittances through Western Union and similar channels, the share of USDT in remittances could surge, accelerating dollarization. With Maduro’s potential arrest and regime change, Venezuela’s cryptocurrency policies may undergo dramatic shifts. A U.S.-influenced transitional government might relax mining restrictions, encourage crypto-friendly policies, and even release the tens of thousands of confiscated mining machines.

However, for ordinary Venezuelans, regime change may be less significant than whether they can buy food with USDT every day. The people of this country have long learned to survive within a collapsing economy; cryptocurrencies are not just investment tools but essential for survival. When fiat currency fails, banking systems collapse, and international remittances are blocked, USDT becomes their only financial link to the outside world.