Bolivars to Bitcoin: Activists to Take Down Venezuela's Maduro in Art Exhibit

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro will be taken down today.

At least his visage, painted on 1,000 bolivars by cryptocurrency-focused artist cryptograffiti, will be.

The destruction of the artist's newest piece - an 11-foot by 10-foot portrait of the Venezuelan leader - will happen in Cucuta, Columbia, about 500 yards from the Simon Bolivar Bridge, a landmark hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have walked across to escape the poverty of their home country.

Since Maduro took office in 2003, Venezuela has suffered drastic inflation, starvation and socio-economic decline.

This past weekend, violence broke out on the border with Brazil as the Venezuelan military moved to block food and medical supplies from entering Venezuela.

In partnership with AirTM, a Mexico-based crypto exchange, and Cripto Conserje, a cryptocurrency-focused merchant services provider, cryptograffiti will watch as his portrait gets torn down.

For every donation made, a Venezuelan at the event will physically remove a bolivar from the mural.

"Venezuelans will literally and figuratively be bringing down Maduro," cryptograffiti said.

The all-day, livestreamed event is part of a larger project, #AirdropVenezuela, which plans to use 50 percent of the donations to send cryptocurrency to more than 100,000 Venezuelans in April.

While the focus is on bitcoin, AirTM is also accepting a number of cryptocurrencies, including zcash, bitcoin cash, ether, XRP and dash.