Venezuela's middle-market companies are losing access to US dollars. Between mid-January and early March 2026, the central bank distributed a total of 1.3 billion USD to the private sector through dollar auctions. That is 13 percent less than the same period last year.
The central bank determines how auction proceeds from oil exports are allocated through local banks. Large corporations in food, healthcare, beverages, and chemicals receive preferential access. Mid-sized companies are increasingly left empty-handed. Specifically, 58 percent of mid-sized business owners cite foreign currency shortages as a production obstacle, according to a survey by the industry association Conindustria.
Smaller firms, including pharmaceutical, plastics, and technology suppliers, are turning to alternatives. USDT, the largest dollar stablecoin, has evolved into a parallel currency. Total off-exchange transactions in USDT in Venezuela exceeded 70 billion USD in 2025, up from 26 billion USD in early 2023. Stablecoins now account for over 80 percent of all crypto activity in the country.
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How USDT became a parallel currency
Since June 2025, the Venezuelan government has permitted expanded use of USDT in private foreign exchange markets. A limited number of banks sell the stablecoin for bolivares to businesses, which need a government-approved digital wallet for the purpose. Companies can either sell the received crypto or use it directly to pay domestic and foreign suppliers. The regulatory authority Sunacrip oversees the process.
In July 2025 alone, banks sold crypto worth 119 million USD to the private sector, according to analytics firm Ecoanalitica. Traditional banking channels are blocked. Venezuelan institutions remain largely cut off from the global financial system due to US sanctions. International wire transfers and global payment platforms simply do not work. Smaller and mid-sized companies also regularly fail compliance checks by foreign correspondent banks. USDT, by contrast, requires no US bank account and can be transferred via peer-to-peer networks.
State oil company as the largest USDT user
Crypto trading in Venezuela is not limited to the middle market. PDVSA, the state oil company, reportedly settles around 80 percent of its oil revenues in USDT and other stablecoins. Oil exports account for more than 83 percent of Venezuela's foreign currency inflows. Production, though, has fallen from over 3 million barrels per day in the early 2000s to around 900,000 barrels per day.
Back in 2023, PDVSA began asking oil buyers to pay in USDT. This allows the company to circumvent US sanctions imposed since 2019 that block access to the traditional dollar system. The scale is significant. On January 11, 2026, Tether froze crypto holdings worth 182 million USD across five Tron wallets. It was one of the stablecoin issuer's largest single actions. Whether the frozen wallets are directly linked to PDVSA has not been conclusively established. Still, the timing aligns closely with the political upheaval in Venezuela.
Regime change and a new rapprochement with the US
The political context has fundamentally changed. On January 3, 2026, US forces arrested President Nicolas Maduro and brought him to New York. There he faces narco-terrorism charges. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez then assumed office as acting president. The UN called the arrest a "serious, manifest and deliberate violation" of the principles of international law. Diplomatic relations between the two countries had been severed since 2019.
Rodriguez then initiated a shift in economic policy. On January 29, 2026, she signed an oil reform law enabling privatization of the oil sector. Under this law, state royalties are capped at 30 percent. In return, the US Treasury permitted limited transactions for PDVSA related to oil exports. Washington facilitated crude oil sales worth roughly 2 billion USD under the new arrangement.
In February, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited Caracas with a focus on oil potential. Early in March, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum followed, accompanied by roughly a dozen US companies. They sought access to Venezuelan oil and mineral deposits. After all, Venezuela holds the world's largest known oil reserves along with significant deposits of gold, copper, diamonds, and coltan. On March 10, the US government formally recognized Rodriguez as Venezuelan state authority before a New York federal court.
Inflation accelerates crypto adoption
At the same time, the national currency is depreciating faster. Inflation rose to 556 percent in the twelve months through mid-December 2025. At the end of June 2025, it stood at 219 percent; at the end of 2024, at 45 percent. For 2026, the IMF forecasts inflation above 600 percent. Accordingly, pressure on businesses to hold revenues and reserves in stable assets is growing.
This trend is not confined to Venezuela. In Iran, Russia, and other sanctioned states, stablecoins also serve as a de facto parallel currency to the dollar. Yet Venezuela stands out as a prime example of state-adjacent crypto adoption under sanctions pressure. Both the state through PDVSA and the private middle market use USDT as a functional dollar substitute. Whether the gradual easing of sanctions following the regime change will actually alleviate the foreign currency shortage depends on how quickly correspondent banks adapt. Until then, USDT remains the pragmatic way out.
