Troubled economies continue to see growth in BTC trading volumes

Bitcoin’s use as a safe haven asset has been one of its biggest and most important advantages in a continuous struggle to reach mass adoption. However, many find fault in such claims, and so the matter continues to remain a topic of debates around the world.

Recently, however, Bitcoin has proven that its usefulness in troubled economies is not only theoretical but that it can actually make a difference. This was seen in multiple examples, including Venezuela, Argentina, Hong Kong, Turkey, African countries, and more.

In all of these regions, citizens are troubling to make ends meet due to financial issues such as hyperinflation, governmental protests, and alike. So, the people did the only thing they could do — they sought out an alternative store of value and found that Bitcoin can do the trick.

Bitcoin P2P trading platform known as LocalBitcoins has seen a significant increase in trading volumes in countries like these, especially when it comes to South America.

According to data comparisons between 2018 and 2019, it is clear that these economies are seeing bigger and bigger degradation. At the same time, BTC trading volumes in these same regions are surging more than ever.

Venezuela traded over $300m on LocalBitcoins in 2019

Venezuela is likely the best example, as the socialist regime of its President, Nicolas Maduro, saw numerous problems such as attempted coups, civil unrest, and more. Not to mention sanctions and the hyperinflation that left its native currency, bolivar, nearly worthless.

Venezuelans found a way to cope by turning to Bitcoin, which became a popular way of securing the value of money, and even increase it by using its volatility. Maduro helped promote cryptos to an extent by creating the country’s native digital currency, the oil-backed Petro. However, while Petro itself did not seem to ‘stick,’ it did present the country’s citizens with an alternative that is cryptocurrency.

Venezuelans then ended up trading around $305.9 million on LocalBitcoins, followed by the likes of Columbia ($134.2m) and Peru ($45.5m).

The protests in Hong Kong saw people turning to BTC as well, while the volumes traded on LocalBitcoins by people of Egypt surged by 70% in 2019, as compared to 2018.