Venezuela To Use ‘Digital Bolivar’ in Its Monetary System

The Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) announced that the “Digital Bolivar” will enter into circulation on October 1. Also on that day, a new monetary scale will be applied, which eliminates 6 zeros from the national currency. That is to say, any value currently expressed in bolivars will be divided by one million.

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"This change of monetary scale, which is supported by the deepening and development of the digital economy in Venezuela, constitutes a necessary historical milestone as the country begins the path of economic recovery, after the crisis produced by the brutal attack on our economy and national currency and the criminal application of an economic and financial blockade," the BCV stated.

"The introduction of the Digital Bolivar does not affect the value of the currency, that is to say, the bolivar will not be worth more or less. To facilitate its use, however, it will have a simpler monetary scale," it explained.

Venezuelan monetary authorities also specified that the Bolivar-denominated bills and physical coins will continue to be issued and used. In other words, in the future, the population will be able to use both physical bolivars and digital bolivars.

The reference exchange rate between these two monetary forms will be determined by the foreign exchange market system and will continue to be calculated based on the foreign currency purchase and sale transactions made by individuals and companies through the banks' exchange bureaus.

Currently, Venezuela is in the process of modernizing its payment systems. Recently, the BCV put into operation the new "Financial Messaging Exchange System," which allows domestic banking operations to be independent from foreign systems.

The modernization of the payment systems also aims at expanding the use of the digital bolivar immediately so as to facilitate transactions between customers of different banks to be received in a few seconds with the highest international quality standards.

"The Bolivarian government and the Central Bank will continue protecting and guaranteeing monetary sovereignty in the interest of boosting the recovery of our economy and making our country's independence impregnable against local and foreign factors that attack Venezuela," the BCV pointed out.