Two Latin American countries positioned themselves at the top for Bitcoin Trading on LocalBitcoins, the most major peer-to-peer trading platform for cryptocurrency.
A post from the educational group named “Satoshi en Valenzuela” published by LocalBitcoins, Venezuela has sustained its position as the second-largest Bitcoin trader in the world, accounting for the 12.3% of all trade volume in 2020. The socialist nation has only been surpassed by Russia (17.4%).
Colombia enters the scene.
Venezuela’s neighbor nation has taken over the third-place after moving 11.3% of all Bitcoins traded on LocalBitcoins. The country leads the Bitcoin ATM market in Latin America with 60 ATMs installed, providing evidence that interest in cryptocurrencies is growing as fast as token prices.
With 23% of LocalBitcoins’ total market, two Latin American countries beat the trading frequency registered by Sub-Saharan Africa, a region with a thriving volume on the rival Paxful platform.
The reason seemed to be predominantly geopolitical and financial. Speaking about Venezuela, the post says that “Hyperinflation in the country has led the exchange volume of Bitcoin to rise considerably in the country. This also influences the volume in its neighboring country, Colombia.”
Aside from Colombia and Venezuela, the other economies are also playing a vital role in the Latin American market, namely, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The use of Bitcoin as a mid-pandemic store of value looks like a primary cause of these markets’ current shift to crypto-economics.
In Mauricio Macri’s government, which ended last December 2019, Argentina has sunk to an economic low, hitting the 2nd position on Bloomberg’s 2020 Misery Index, right behind Venezuela and thrice ahead of Colombia.
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