The trading exchange with bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets Uphold announced today the closure of its operations in Venezuela and thus joined the contingent of companies that have said goodbye to this territory due to the sanctions imposed on the country by the United States.
Uphold not the first financial service withdrawing from Venezuelan territoryAnd it certainly won’t be the last. A report published in 2020 by Venezuelan economist Luis Oliveros sheds light on the impact that US measures are having on the economy and other sectors of the country.
The document reveals that US sanctions are affecting the most vulnerable in Venezuela.
For ordinary citizens, this implies a decrease in financial services as risk aversion increases from banks and other entities operating in Venezuela or with Venezuelan institutions, which are obliged to comply with US sanctions.
That is precisely what Venezuelans are lamenting on Twitter, now, when they must withdraw, before July 31, their bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies that they have in Uphold.
From today, the company will no longer accept deposits from Venezuelan residents and will close all accounts with a zero balance, as CriptoNoticias reported earlier.
One less option for users of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Venezuela
Following Uphold’s announcement, many users are turning to Twitter to Express oneself.
“It was the worst news to start the day”, “it is unfortunate because many freelancers we used it to collect” or “another wallet that decides to give its arm to twist”, are phrases that arise from the sudden dismissal of Venezuela from the bitcoin trading service and other crypto assets.
There are many regrets about the closure of Uphold operations, however, most focus on the steady departure from the country’s cryptocurrency platforms.
In 2019, it was the Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange that stopped providing its services to residents of Venezuela, although it did not detail the reasons that led to that decision.
Later, in September of last year, Cryptobuyer Pro, the exchange created by the Cryptobuyer company, also stopped operating in Venezuela. And the same thing happened with the peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC) exchange Paxful, which stopped operating in the country in 2020.
In fact, some users fear that the stampede of cryptocurrency services from Venezuelan territory continues.
Sanctions for whom?
Among the laments of the Venezuelans for the departure of Uphold, there are many remarks that the sanctions of the United States “affect ordinary citizens more, without even tickling the State”.
“The worst thing is that the righteous are paying more than the sinners,” said a user on Twitter. In the meantime, some people believe that today it is necessary to rethink the sanctions that the United States imposes on Venezuela.
Even the reorientation of the sanctions against Venezuela is something that the economist Oliveros mentions in his report. He claims the need for limit the impact that these measures they have on the economy of those who live in their territory.
“US policymakers thought these sanctions were short-term measures that would quickly lead to a democratic transition. But they have harmed the Venezuelan people more than the government,” says Oliveros in the document.
In any case, there is also Venezuelans who stand out the benefits of holding bitcoin in your self-custody wallets because they can always use it as a censorship-resistant medium of value exchange. This is because a bank account is not required, nor is the intervention or services of third parties.
Thus, many encourage trading and payments with bitcoin peer to peer or from person to person.