Bolivia scrapped its fixed dollar exchange rate on June 26, letting the boliviano float for the first time in 15 years. The currency opened at 9.73 per dollar, an implied devaluation of nearly 40%, as the government moved to push other sectors to generate dollars and improve foreign reserve accumulation.
Bolivia has abandoned the fixed dollar exchange rate it held for nearly 15 years, letting the boliviano float and triggering a sharp devaluation. The Ministry of Economy published Resolution 245 on June 26, opening the market to free flotation of the dollar rate.
The rate had been pinned at 6.96 bolivianos per dollar since November 2011. Under the new regime, the boliviano opened at 9.73 per dollar on Monday — an implied devaluation of nearly 40%.
Why the peg broke
The ministry tied the shift to a long decline in oil revenue. The fixed regime was set when oil exports had surged, but those revenues have been drying up since 2005, the resolution states, which is why the government now wants other economic sectors to generate their own dollars and improve the balance of payments and foreign reserve accumulation.
Economy Minister José Gabriel Espinoza framed the change as a benefit rather than a retreat. He said the dollar would no longer be governed by large central bank interventions, so according to Bitcoin News Bolivia no longer needs heavy reserves: "it is not necessary to have a large amount of reserves", even though the country holds more today than it did five years ago.
A parallel market and a stablecoin shift
The old peg had produced a chronic dollar shortage, spawning a parallel market where dollars traded well above the official rate, similar to what happened in Venezuela. That squeeze pushed Bolivians toward stablecoins as dollar proxies to protect their purchasing power, even while banks were barred from crypto-linked operations.
That barrier later fell. After the central bank lifted its ban in June 2024, the local crypto ecosystem saw rapid growth in adoption and trading volumes — a shift now running alongside an openly floating national currency.
Source: Bitcoin News
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