Reserve, a Coinbase-backed stablecoin startup, launches in Venezuela

Contxto – In the “upcoming weeks,” Android users in Venezuela will be able to download the latest crypto payment app, Reserve on Google Play, according to a project press release from March 12, shared with Cointelegraph.

In Summary

Coinbase-backed startup, Reserve, has some interesting plans for Venezuelans.

From now on, individuals and companies can soon look forward to swapping location fiat to the firm’s stablecoin, the Reserve Dollar (RSD), anchored to the market price of the U.S. dollar.

“Many people, including some of our investors, discouraged us from starting in Venezuela. […] Hyperinflation is the exact problem that Reserve is designed to solve, and Venezuela is suffering the highest inflation anywhere in the world at this time, so we felt it had to be done,” said the press release.

In the announcement, the company mentions that apart from launching the “Venmo Style” stablecoin app, it is also launching separate utility token, the Reserve Right (RSR) utility token.

It will reportedly be listed in one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, the Huobi Global token sale platform, Houbi Prime. In terms of adjusted daily trade volumes, Huobi ranks ninth in the world.

In-Depth

Based on the press release, there are currently 16 countries with annual inflation rates above 20 percent. In terms of Venezuela, however, the circumstances are among the worst due to the bolivar losing almost 10 percent of its value every day.

With so much inflation of the bolivar, Bitcoin’s use has gone up throughout Venezuela’s worsening financial crisis. It reached a new milestone in December when dash (DASH) welcomed its 2,500th merchant in Venezuela to accept the currency as a payment. There were reportedly around 1,000 merchants using the platform in August 2018.

According to Cointelegraph’s coverage in June last year, a variety of angel investors and VC funds have supported the Reserve Project. These include Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Digital Currency Group, Arrington XRP Capital, Distributed Global and GSR.IO, among others. Coinbase has also played an important role in the project’s development.

The Venezuelan government first introduced crypto-monetary remittance regulations in February, resulting in monthly limits and commissions for users. All transactions are payable to the National Superintendency of Cryptocurrency Assets and Related Activities, according to the new requirements.

-VC