Countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela are the ones that register more operations on the Localbitcoins platform.
Trading volumes on the platform of Localbitcoins continue to rise in Latin America, even though these operations fell globally since the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) platform revision last year. Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela are some of the countries that continue to record a high volume in recent weeks, according to information issued by Coin.dance.
As an example of those positive statistics, the trading between Bitcoin (BTC) and the Mexican peso increased by 71% in late April. This happened during the week of April 25th, when the users acquired bitcoins (BTC) in Mexico by paying about USD 430,000. This figure represents the fourth most intense weekly commercial activity recorded to date.
In Argentina, the number of peer-to-peer (P2P) operations also increased during last April. A new record of more than USD 710,000 in weekly volume was recorded in this country during the week of April 18th. Meanwhile, the minimum volume reached to close the month was around USD 670,000, an amount that still being very positive for the market.
Trading Increase in Other Countries
Similarly, trading in Colombia also saw positive record volumes during April, one of the highest recorded for said Latin American country. The week of April 4th was the second-highest trading in the Colombian market, with almost USD 2.7 million in trading volume. During the following weeks, the volume was also high and ranged from 2.1 to 2.6 million dollars.
The same week as Colombia, on April 4th, Chile presented a record volume with almost USD 400,000 of trading. The market recorded positive numbers during the following week. This occurred after weeks of steady increase. Thus, the weekly commercial activity in Chile was previously between USD 280,000 and USD 325,000.
Hyperinflation in Venezuela
In the case of Venezuela, between Monday 13th and Saturday 18th April, Venezuelan users traded 530 billion bolivars on the P2P LocalBitcoins platform. This amount also represented a record within the portal dedicated to the sale and purchase of Bitcoins. It was the fourth time for the Venezuelan weekly trading to register a record since the beginning of April.
This increase in the number of bolivars traded occurs due to the hyperinflation that Venezuela faces, where they try to increase monetary liquidity to alleviate the difficult economic situation.
In this sense, data from the Central Bank of Venezuela indicate that monetary liquidity increased by approximately 20% in March. The financial institution added more than 13 trillion bolivars to the 61 trillion that were in circulation during February.
Although the increase in Bitcoin prices and inflation in Venezuela means that users must invest more bolivars each month; citizens continue buying bitcoins as a way to preserve their money.
With less than a week for the halving scheduled for this May 12th, the value of Bitcoin recovered by 23% arriving at USD 9,400 during the week of May 4th. Thus, according to the statistics of the Coinmarketcap tool, the current market capitalization of Bitcoin is USD 163,602,397,587. The crypto community expects the value of the main cryptocurrency to increase a bit more after the halving.
By María Rodríguez
