Ongoing Economic Crises in Venezuela and Beyond Show That the Idea of Bitcoin as a Store of Value Is Increasingly Catching On

Cointelegraph has already shown in a 2018 article how Venezuela's recent plight resulted in a surge in popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, while data from Coin Dance reveal that over 35,000 Bitcoin was traded for bolívar on the LocalBitcoins crypto exchange over the entire course of last year.

While their use of cryptocurrencies isn't on the level of Venezuela's, there has been a noticeable growth in recent months, indicating that the idea of using Bitcoin and other coins as alternative stores of value is gradually taking root in their societies.

Given that the total for all of 2018 was 35,000, it's clear that Venezuela is on its way to hitting a new national record for Bitcoin trading, especially in light of how the U.S. has stepped up its economic war against the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro.

It also serves as a message to the Venezuelan population that the government is effectively embracing its move to Bitcoin and other coins, despite the fact that the Maduro administration had cracked down on Bitcoin mining in the past, for example.

While commissions on crypto remittances might potentially have a depressive effect on the thriving Bitcoin and Dash markets in Venezuela, there are signs that Venezuelans will become increasingly able to source their own crypto without needing someone to send it to them from abroad. Toward the end of January, Venezuela's first ever crypto ATM opened in Caracas, supporting withdrawals in Bitcoin, Dash and Litecoin.

Statistics provided by CryptoCompare show that the trading of Bitcoin saw a steady and overall increase in the second half of 2018, a period that also witnessed a number of noticeable spikes.

There was a pronounced jump in U.S. dollar prices at the height of the Turkish lira crisis, as Turkish traders and laypeople turned more to the world's reserve currency as a store of value than to alternative stores, such as Bitcoin.

In the second quarter of 2018, the figures show a daily average of 18.4 BTC. By contrast, the third and fourth quarters - when the rupee crisis began setting in - saw daily averages of 28.5 and and 30.6 BTC. Compared to Q2 2018, these two figures represent increases of 54.9 percent and 66.3 percent, while data for comparably sized economies show smaller increases across these two periods.

CryptoCompare data for the British pound shows a decrease of 14.9 percent between Q2 and Q3 2018, and an increase of only 15.2 percent between Q2 and Q4. In other words, while there was a general, worldwide increase in the volume of Bitcoin trades over Q3 and Q4, it was more tangible in some nations than others.

According to the data for the BTC/rial market on LocalBitcoins, the average daily volume in Q2 2018 was a modest 3.32 BTC. In Q3 2018, this rose slightly to 3.61 BTC, while in the fourth quarter of the year - when the sanctions were activated - it rose to 4.1 BTC. Coming in respectively at 8.7 percent and 23.8 percent, these are only modest rises, but they're still more than can be witnessed in other nations with comparable GDP. For instance, the IMF puts Norway at 28th for nominal GDP, yet between Q2 and Q3 2018 trading of Norwegian krone for Bitcoin declined by 29.9 percent - while between Q2 and Q4 2018, it declined by 25.9 percent.