Venezuela shuts down banks amid panic, Bitcoin trading soars  

Venezuela is under a nationwide quarantine to fight the spread of coronavirus, shutting down all banks. At the same time, Bitcoin trading on p2p exchanges is on the rise.

Despite only having 33 cases of coronavirus throughout Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro today placed the entire country under quarantine to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

And in compliance with Maduro's decree, the entire national banking system has shut its doors for an indefinite period of time. Meanwhile, Bitcoin trading within Venezuela appears to be on the rise.

Antonio Morales Rodriguez, head of the SUDEBAN—the highest regulatory body for all banking activity in Venezuela—issued a letter addressed to the nation's banks earlier this week, urging them to close their doors with no clear date of return to normalcy:

"I am writing this letter ... to instruct you that, starting Monday, March 16, 2020, all activities involving direct attention to customers, users and the general public through agencies, branches, offices and administrative headquarters throughout the country will be indefinitely suspended," Rodriguez's letter states.

News of the bank closures, however, appears to have been mostly shrugged off by the Venezuelan public. Cash shortages, a dependence on the US dollar, and a wanting technological infrastructure have led Venezuelans to dispense with traditional banking services. For years, an informal economy in Venezuela has thrived, with most people sticking to cash (when available), barter, gold (in the southern regions of the country), and crypto (among a small but growing segment of the population).

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