In 2020, Venezuela's largest state-owned oil company, PdVSA, was placed on the US sanctions list and began demanding payment for deliveries in USDT to circumvent banking restrictions.
According to economist Asdrubal Oliveros, the dollar-denominated stablecoin accounts for 80% of Venezuela's revenue from oil exports to the global market.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino attributed the surge in interest in stablecoins in Venezuela to inflation, which has caused the bolivar to depreciate against the dollar by 99% over the past few years. Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of the payment service Ledn, told the Wall Street Journal that USDT is now used to pay for almost everything in the country, from utilities to beauty salon visits.
Adam Zarazinski, head of analytics firm Inca Digital, predicted that Venezuelans will continue to protect their savings with stablecoins, while the government will continue to circumvent US sanctions.
Tether is actively cooperating with US authorities. The stablecoin issuer froze several dozen crypto wallets linked to Venezuelan oil trades and promised to continue to assist in tracking funds used by the Venezuelan government.
Earlier, analysts at the TRM Labs platform reported that Venezuelans were forced to switch to US dollar-backed stablecoins due to the collapse of the Latin American country's economy.