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Another report revealed how Cubans are evading US sanctions by using bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin remittance solutions – with conventional wire transfers almost impossible between US-aligned nations and the Communist state.
A report from Deutsche Welle’s Spanish-language service found that some Cubans are also turning to altcoins, with some remittance agreements in place in ethereum (ETH) and dogecoin (DOGE). The outlet found that around 10,000 people in Cuba now use cryptocurrencies.
The BitRemesas The platform, which has grown out of nothing this year, has around 300-400 users, according to its founder, who says the platform’s operators are working on ways to enable Cubans – or perhaps more precisely their family members residing in the overseas – to pay for electricity and other utility bills using crypto.
BitRemesas claims to have a high volume of transfers, but often in small amounts of $ 10-20, with remittances in the $ 100 range more of a rarity.
Cryptonews.com previously reported BitRemesas on the rise. The platform sees overseas Cubans converting their fiat earnings into bitcoin and essentially placing their remittance requests for a negative auction, allowing bitcoin enthusiast-based intermediaries in Cuba to bid for the right to receive. the BTC, convert it into fiat fiat) and hand over the remittance in cash to the recipient family members.
The problem, of course, is that brokers can bid to receive a portion of the remittance as a commission, with charges of up to 25% common, and the BitRemesas platform also gets a cut.
Also, as reported last month, money transfer platforms such as Western Union they closed their offices in the country following a wave of tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by leaders in Havana and Washington. This has hit some of Cuba’s poorest citizens in their pockets – with many families in the country dependent for their livelihood on remittances sent by relatives living and working abroad.
Second Havana Consulting Group and Tech data, over the past 10 years, the Cuban population has received $ 29.95 billion in cash remittances. 90% of this money came from the United States. In 2018, the amount of cash remittances to Cuba was estimated at $ 3.69 billion, an increase of 3.6% from 2017, the consultancy said.
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