How Stablecoins Will Play a Key Role in America’s Plan for Post-Maduro Venezuela

As Venezuela faces a pivotal transition toward democracy following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, the global conversation remains fixated on oil production. This focus misses the most urgent requirement for a stable recovery: a functional financial system capable of supporting investment, trade, and daily economic life.

The Venezuelan bolivar (VES) is a failed currency, destroyed by years of hyperinflation and regime mismanagement, a grim reality I have witnessed first-hand as a Venezuelan. To fix this problem, the United States must accelerate the adoption of dollar-based stablecoins in Venezuela, providing people with efficient, safe and reliable financial inclusion tools.

Stablecoins are essentially Starlink for the dollar. Just as satellite internet bypasses broken local infrastructure to provide global connectivity, stablecoins allow anyone with an internet connection to access the U.S. dollar. This technology meets a global market need for dollars that traditional banks cannot fill due to cost, geography, capital controls or political instability. The U.S. government can move the Venezuelan population off the collapsing bolivar and onto the dollar faster than traditional financial institutions.

The groundwork for this transition already exists in Latin America. Despite regime restrictions, Venezuela consistently ranks among the top countries for global crypto adoption, reflecting a desperate search for wealth preservation amid economic ruin. Venezuelan citizens already use these digital assets to hedge against inflation and facilitate everyday transactions.

Critics often dismiss stablecoins as speculative, unregulated or pointless, despite the fact that transactions surged to a record $33 trillion in 2025. However, in the context of post-Maduro Venezuela, it’s near-certain that stablecoins will prove their utility not only as a lifeline for Venezuelans to escape a failing currency but as a tool of economic statecraft. When a stablecoin issuer receives a local currency, it purchases short-term U.S. Treasury bills to back the “digital USD” it issues. This process creates a new, massive source of demand for U.S. debt, strengthening American financial leadership while providing Venezuelans with a stable currency. 

Successful deployment of USD-backed stablecoins requires more than political will, as it requires a modern regulatory framework that reduces the compliance friction of doing business between American firms and their Venezuelan counterparts. Current anti-money laundering requirements are often ill-suited to digital rails such as USDT. These systems already feature native real-time monitoring and traceability, as well as the technical ability to freeze funds at the issuer level. Layering legacy compliance burdens on top of these built-in safeguards creates a redundant compliance tax that fails to improve security while succeeding in delaying legitimate commerce. To turn digital assets into a strategic advantage, the U.S. must recalibrate non-financial compliance. This ensures that American firms are not sidelined by administrative bloat at the exact moment when speed and scale are most critical.

This approach offers a clear national security advantage. In a global economic reordering, the U.S. dollar faces competition from rival networks. Ensuring that the Venezuelan people transition to a U.S. dollar-denominated system—rather than a digital yuan or a regional alternative—is a strategic necessity. That’s why using stablecoin rails serves as a potent check against de-dollarization efforts by adversarial powers such as China and Russia. By meeting the overwhelming grassroots demand for greenbacks, Washington can secure regional influence and ensure Venezuela’s reconstruction is built on American financial infrastructure rather than on parallel systems contested by authoritarian rivals.

There’s also a palpable humanitarian imperative for deploying stablecoins. With over 7.9 million Venezuelans requiring urgent aid, stablecoins provide a corruption-resistant "digital humanitarian corridor" to deliver assistance on the ground,  directly to citizens' phones. 

The post-Maduro era requires bold thinking. Now that the GENIUS Act is law, the U.S. government should use the speed of stablecoins to accelerate the reconstruction of Venezuelan markets. This is a necessary first step toward achieving success in rebuilding democratic institutions in my home country, as democracy cannot survive without economic development. Stablecoins will serve as one of the United States’ most effective modern exports, a 21st-century strategic tool of economic statecraft and empowerment. By facilitating rapid dollarization through digital rails, the U.S. ensures that the transition is backed by the one thing every Venezuelan needs: a currency they can actually trust.

Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan native, is a fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and president of the Economic Inclusion Group.