Report contents
LATAM · Developing
Venezuela
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 41 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +4 |
| Inflation 250% · unbanked 13% · remittances 3.5% GDP · capital controls 1 · sanctions 0.75 | CNI 0.603 |
| Need multiplier | ×1.405 |
| Livability score | 0.686 |
Raw 41/84 = 0.488 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.60, from five components: inflation 250% (three-year average 2023 to 2025, at the 50% clamp), unbanked 13% of adults, remittances 3.5% of GDP, capital-control intensity 1.00 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0.75. Need multiplier ×1.41. Livability score 0.686, rank #6 of 79.
Three findings
Venezuela holds a perfect P2P liquidity bonus of 4/4, one of only ten such top marks in the index
Peer-to-peer (P2P, person-to-person trades with no central intermediary) is the country's deepest rail: stablecoins make up over 80% of crypto activity, USDT (a US-dollar-pegged stablecoin) trades as de facto "Binance dollars," and 2025 crypto transaction volume reached an estimated $44.6B. With livability rank #6 against rails rank #57, a Δ of +51, Venezuela is the index's sharpest illustration of extreme need lifting modest rails: hyperinflation, not policy, built the system.
Spending is the strongest pillar, P3 12/20, anchored by a top merchant score of 4/20
Traki accepts ten cryptocurrencies across 49 stores via Pundi X point-of-sale terminals; Bodegón Casa Mia (9 stores) and Hard Rock Café Caracas settle in USDT through Binance Pay. With roughly 229% inflation, Caracas receipts print totals in "Binance dollars" because pricing has moved off the bolívar onto the blockchain, giving Venezuela arguably the highest per-capita direct merchant acceptance outside El Salvador.
Regulation is the weakest pillar and the one true brake: P2 8/20, with the Trajectory sub-score at 0
SUNACRIP, the crypto regulator, has been paralysed since a 2023 corruption scandal, leaving a vacuum that informal P2P fills: no-KYC (no know-your-customer identity checks) brokers on Binance P2P, AirTM and Telegram dominate, with one platform drawing 38% of Venezuelan-IP web traffic. A 3% IGTF transaction levy and an ongoing mining-ban enforcement (residential hashrate down 65% since 2024) push the direction toward tightening, not opening.
In one line
"In Caracas the receipts already read in Binance dollars, because the bolívar stopped being a unit anyone trusts. We did not choose stablecoins over the state; the state's money left first, and USDT was what stayed."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 0/4, actively tightening. The crypto mining ban stays in force with active enforcement, residential hashrate has fallen 65% since 2024 disconnection operations, SUNACRIP remains paralysed, and SENIAT crypto-tax enforcement is scaling up. A partial supplier-side re-authorisation of exchangers and custodians began in September 2025, but it does not reach consumers, who still face a de facto no-KYC environment at cutoff. Post-cutoff (2026): watch whether the September 2025 re-authorisation gains real enforcement and captures share, which could pull the no-KYC P2P score down; and note Tether's $182M USDT freeze of 10 January 2026, which targeted PDVSA-regime addresses, not retail users.