With Venezuela’s economy in crisis, cryptocurrency fills the gaps

Pablo Toro, a Venezuelan food delivery driver in Colombia, uses digital tokens every time he sends money to his family.

Venezuelan food delivery driver Pablo Toro has no stake in cryptocurrency or blockchain, but indirectly uses digital tokens every time he sends money to his family. Toro, who emigrated to Colombia in 2019, uses an app called Valiu to receive Colombian pesos from working on Bogota’s streets and deposit the corresponding bolivars into a Venezuelan bank account. In Venezuela’s economy, mired by hyperinflation and hemmed in by sanctions, the operation is not so straightforward.