Economist Proposes National USD Stablecoin to Eliminate Currency Controls in Venezuela
Key Takeaways:
Grisanti proposes “the implementation of a system based on stablecoins integrated into the formal financial system, subject to strict regulation and featuring AML/KYC compliance mechanisms,” in addition to the controlled import of cash to allow small and medium-sized companies without banking accounts in the U.S. to operate using dollars in the local market.
Grisanti’s proposal suggests the issuance of a dollar stablecoin specially designed for the country, which would feature traceability, operational control, and shared auditing with international partners.
For him, such a system would be a good complement to the current auction system, which uses private and state banks as distributors, democratizing the assets to foreign currency to excluded systems, reducing the allure of arbitrage and speculation, and also strengthening the transparency of the foreign currency transactional system.
While there is no official dollarization, the Venezuelan economy has experienced a de facto dollarization process that ramped up stablecoin adoption since 2025, with exchange rates far higher than the official one set by the Central Bank of Venezuela. Grisanti’s proposal, if adopted, might precede the inclusion of stablecoins as part of the banking transactional system, potentially allowing for stablecoins settlements between banks.
In October, Rodolfo Gasparri, president of Conexus, which intermediates 40% of the country’s electronic transfers, stated that a stablecoin-based settlement system was in the early stages of research and development. Nonetheless, no news about this system has been shared since.
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