Venezuelan Banking Watchdog to Oversee Crypto Transactions to Preserve Currency Stability

The Venezuelan government is aiming to monitor the the movements of crypto-based P2P exchanges to protect the value of the bolivar. On Dec. 20, the Venezuelan banking watchdog Sudeban explained that it is in the process of designing a system to monitor banking transactions in real-time, with the help of Sunacrip, the national cryptocurrency regulator.

While no more details were offered, the organization explained the objective is to "fight the irregular practices that attack our currency and the stability of the exchange market." This means that the government looks to be examining the link between the volumes exchanged in cryptocurrency markets and the U.S. dollar – Venezuelan bolivar exchange rate.

While the government has not stated explicitly there is a direct relation between these two variables, analysts have linked the recent cryptocurrency drought in peer-to-peer markets due to the collapse of FTX, to the sudden rise in the aforementioned exchange rate. However, this is also said to be mixed in with other causes, such as the natural abundance of fiat currency in the market due to holiday-related payments.

Related to this measure, more than 75 bank accounts have been blocked due to suspicious activity related to cryptocurrency transactions since the end of 2021, according to Legalrocks, a national crypto-focused law firm.

This would be one of the "drastic" measures that president Nicolas Maduro announced on Dec. 11 in order to subdue the devaluation of the bolivar, which has gone from 12.66 bolivars per dollar on Nov. 28, to almost 20 bolivars per dollar on Dec. 28. This follows another high devaluation period in November, which saw the bolivar lose 40% of its value.

(Source: Bitcoin.com)