South America has recently been a haven for crypto fans. El Salvador has fully adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in a highly controversial move that many believed was a bluff. Venezuela is another South American country that obviously holds interest in cryptos after the Caracas International Airport (CCS) just announced that it’ll start receiving cryptocurrencies as a legal form of payment.
Colonel Freddy Borges Flores, general director of the CCS, announced the news on a press conference on October 7. After a lot of research that included working closely with the National Superintendence of Cryptocurrency Assets and Related Activities, the airport decided to make crypto payments legal for airport services in Venezuela.
Bitcoin and Petro Accepted
This isn’t the first time Venezuela has delved into cryptocurrencies. The Venezuelan Petro was launched in 2018 by the government of Venezuela. It was developed as a cryptocurrency backed by the country’s oil and mineral reserves, and as a way of becoming less dependent on the US Dollar. As of early 2020, the country’s president Nicolas Maduro has made it mandatory to pay for government services, documents, and airplane fuel for international flights in Petro.
Venezuela’s government is currently pushing for cryptocurrency adoption, so the CCS’s move to accept crypto payments shouldn’t be a big surprise. The biggest airport in the country currently accepts only Petro, Bitcoin, and Dash, with more cryptos possibly coming in the future. According to Colonel Borges Flores, this move should benefit tourism in the country.
Domestic and foreign travelers will now be able to pay for flights and other services in crypto. Earlier this August, Venezuelan carrier Turpial Airlines started accepting cryptocurrencies as payment in order to fight the local currency hyperinflation. Conviasa, another state carrier, has done the same, but currently only accept Petro.
Private aviation company PrivateFly has announced that over 20% of its yearly revenues come from cryptos. It seems that Venezuela is the next country in line for full-blown crypto adoption, although it will most likely start with the Petro rather than Bitcoin.
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