The Venezuelan bolívar is the official currency of Venezuela. As of today, it’s called the bolívar digital (VES), introduced in October 2021. But don’t let the name fool you—it’s not a cryptocurrency or blockchain-based coin. It’s a regular fiat currency, just with “digital” branding to make the latest currency redenomination sound modern.
This is the third version of the bolívar in less than two decades. The currency has been rebranded and redenominated so many times that locals often refer to prices in “old bolívars” or simply in U.S. dollars—because no one actually trusts the bolívar anymore as a store of value.
A Quick History of the Bolívar’s Redenominations
The bolívar didn’t start broken. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the most stable currencies in Latin America. That changed in the late 1990s, and by the 2000s, Venezuela’s economy began to unravel under pressure from falling oil prices, currency controls, and poor fiscal policy.
Here’s what happened next:
- 2008 – The bolívar fuerte (VEF) replaced the original bolívar at a rate of 1 VEF = 1,000 old bolívars.
- 2018 – The bolívar soberano (VES) replaced the VEF at a rate of 1 VES = 100,000 VEF.
- 2021 – The bolívar digital (still VES) removed six more zeroes, turning 1 million VES into 1 new VES.
Add it all up, and the bolívar has lost 14 zeroes since 2008. If you held 1 billion bolívars in 2007, it’s now worth almost nothing in purchasing power. Hyperinflation wiped it out.
How the Bolívar Functions Today
Functionally, the bolívar is used for small local transactions—public transport, street food, or official tax payments. Everything else is priced in U.S. dollars. Supermarkets, landlords, restaurants, and private businesses all quote prices in USD. The bolívar only survives because it’s the legal tender—and even then, only because people are forced to use it in some situations.
Wages for many public sector jobs are still paid in bolívars. But within minutes, most workers convert them to dollars, stablecoins, or hard goods to avoid losing value from one week to the next.
Inflation and Purchasing Power
Venezuela has lived through hyperinflation—defined as 50% monthly inflation—multiple times since 2016. In 2018, inflation peaked at over 1,000,000% annually, according to unofficial estimates. The government stopped publishing consistent data years ago, so analysts rely on independent research or data from the opposition-led National Assembly.
Even though inflation has slowed in recent years, the bolívar still bleeds value constantly. In early 2020, 1 USD bought around 80,000 bolívars. By mid-2025, that number is in the tens of millions for the pre-2021 bolívar formats. Locals don’t ask, “How much is this in bolívars?”—they ask, “What’s the price in dollars?”
The Rise of Dollarization
To survive, Venezuela has informally dollarized. It’s not official policy, but it’s tolerated—and it’s the only reason the economy still functions.
- Over 60% of transactions nationwide are done in USD.
- The rest are split between bolívars, euros, pesos, and, increasingly, crypto (especially USDT).
- In border regions, the Colombian peso often circulates more widely than the bolívar.
- Many retailers now accept Zelle, PayPal, and Binance Pay as normal payment methods.
So while the bolívar remains on government paperwork, the real economy runs on hard currency.
Where Is the Bolívar Actually Used?
There are still use cases for the bolívar:
- Tax payments to local or national authorities
- Paying utilities, which still price services in bolívars
- Salaries for government workers and public pensions
- Microtransactions where cash in bolívars is more accessible than small-dollar bills
But outside of that, even Venezuelans try to avoid holding it longer than absolutely necessary.
Why Doesn’t the Government Abandon It?
The bolívar is part of national identity and political control. Giving it up would mean admitting the currency has failed—and the government avoids that at all costs. It also helps control inflation optics, manage local fiscal obligations, and enforce state pricing schemes on paper, even if no one follows them in practice.
They’ve instead allowed a two-tier system to evolve:
- Officially: bolívars are the only legal tender.
- In practice: dollars, crypto, and even gold coins are accepted everywhere.
Can You Invest or Trade in Bolívars?
Not really. The bolívar is not convertible in global forex markets. There are no trading platforms, ETFs, futures contracts, or liquidity pools for it. Even inside Venezuela, most people convert bolívars into USD, USDT, or hard goods as fast as possible.
The closest thing to “trading” bolívars is through peer-to-peer platforms like Binance P2P or LocalBitcoins (before it shut down), where users swap bolívars for stablecoins or crypto. But that’s not FX speculation—it’s value preservation.
Final Word
The Venezuelan bolívar is still technically the national currency, but its role in the economy is ceremonial at best, and mostly dysfunctional. It’s used where it has to be used, avoided where possible, and not taken seriously by anyone with access to real money.
If you’re considering exposure to Venezuela, forget trying to bet on the bolívar. Focus on hard assets, dollarized transactions, and sectors where pricing happens in real currency.
For real analysis and on-the-ground access to Venezuelan investments that avoid bolívar volatility entirely, Orenoque Invest provides capital strategies built on real-world economics—not broken currency systems.