Venezuela's national assembly blocked a bill to formally dollarize the economy on constitutional grounds, even though the US dollar already covers 65% of retail transactions. The clash pits an opposition lawmaker's plan to scrap the bolívar against a Chavismo-aligned legislature unwilling to give up control of monetary policy.
Opposition lawmaker Antonio Ecarri pushed a bill through public debate in mid-September 2026 that would replace the bolívar entirely with the US dollar, only for Venezuela's Chavismo-aligned national assembly to block it on constitutional grounds. The proposal carried analytical backing from economist Steve Hanke.
The vote does not change much on the ground. The dollar has functioned as Venezuela's real currency since roughly 2018 and 2019, filling the gap left by a bolívar so eroded by inflation that it barely functions as money.
A country already living in dollars
About 65% of retail transactions in Venezuela are already conducted in US dollars, so formal dollarization would mostly ratify what shopkeepers, landlords, and street vendors have done on their own for years. Meanwhile, inflation reached 576% year-on-year by July 2026, a pace that erodes bolívar-denominated wages before they clear the bank.
A May 2026 survey found that more than 50% of Venezuelans favored formal dollarization as a way to stabilize prices. Business groups ANCE and Consecomercio, however, have floated a bimonetary system instead — keeping the bolívar in circulation alongside the dollar rather than replacing it outright.
Why the legislature said no
Formal dollarization would strip Venezuela's central bank of its ability to print money, removing the tool the government has used to finance spending during the crisis. That is precisely why the Maduro-aligned assembly's objection is not merely procedural: control over monetary policy is a core instrument of political power, and surrendering it means surrendering the ability to fund the state through currency creation.
Other countries offer a template. Ecuador formalized dollarization in 2000 and saw inflation drop sharply within a few years. El Salvador has used the dollar since 2001. For foreign investors, full dollarization would also remove the risk that a bolívar devaluation wipes out returns measured in dollar terms.
Stablecoins fill the gap for now
With the bolívar losing value at that pace, Venezuelans without easy access to physical dollars have turned to dollar-denominated stablecoins such as USDT and USDC as a store of value, a workaround that has thrived precisely because the formal banking system has struggled to deliver dollar access at scale.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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