Bitfinex Securities Report identifies tokenisation as a tool for rebuilding Venezuela’s economy

• Following the arrest of former President Nicolás Maduro in January 2026, Venezuela has entered a phase of profound transformation, and tokenisation is emerging as a tool to boost economic growth

• The Bitfinex Securities’ Latin America Market Inclusion Report is the industry’s first analysis of the barriers facing all classes of fund-raisers and investors across Latin America

SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR, 11 June, 2026 – Bitfinex Securities, a regulated platform for raising capital and trading tokenised securities, today released new analysis of how tokenisation can play a key role in boosting Venezuela’s nascent economic recovery.

The latest version of the Bitfinex Securities Latin America Market Inclusion Report reveals how structural constraints are hampering the economic green shoots of recovery that have become evident since President Maduro was arrested in January 2026.

The constraints identified, including high issuance and structure costs, protracted processes, and significant intermediation, are those typically seen in emerging economies with small capital markets and historically have hampered growth as these economies struggle to access international capital. 

Jorge Jraissati, President of Economic Inclusion Group, interviewed for Bitfinex Securities’ analysis, said: “Reports from the OECD, the BIS, and the World Economic Forum converge on the view that tokenisation can reduce operational frictions, enhance traceability, facilitate faster settlement, and broaden access for investors — provided that a clear legal framework exists governing property rights, custody, compliance, and dispute resolution”.

Local experts believe now is the time to start placing tokenisation at the heart of Venezuela’s financial infrastructure to ensure that when international investors are once again able to participate in the markets there, the country is able to benefit from their presence. Venezuela already has the advantage of a population that is highly literate in digital assets,  having turned to cryptocurrencies for payments, savings, and international transfers to navigate years of economic turmoil. 

Jose Miguel Farias, a fundraising consultant, said: “Venezuela possesses a favourable element that is rarely acknowledged in this context: a broad user base that already manages digital assets and stablecoins as part of daily life — not out of financial sophistication, but out of necessity. That is real adoption infrastructure. Tokenisation can do a great deal to accelerate progress, but it cannot do so in isolation; it requires the country to advance in its understanding, regulation, and adoption of these technologies.”

Venezuela has huge untapped economic potential:  oil production, for example, reached its highest level in seven years in 2025, surpassing 1 million barrels per day (bpd). Yet the country is still not attracting the level of investment needed to return to the 3.1 million bpd production levels of the late nineties, which is key if the country is to solidify this period of economic transformation. 

Venezuela’s oil assets provide a natural entry point for integrating tokenisation into financial infrastructure. According to Mr Jraissati, tokenising natural resources assets is one of the three core opportunities that tokenisation could facilitate for the country:

• Tokenising economic flows linked to productive assets, for instance, rights to future revenues from oil, gas, or mining projects, could help mobilise capital without waiting for a full reconstruction of the traditional financial system. Successful adoption within the natural resources sectors could provide a blueprint for wider integration across the economy.
• Economic exposure to capital-intensive projects through fractionalisation, opening space for co-investment amongst family offices, specialist funds, commodity traders, and actors within the Venezuelan diaspora.
• Creating significantly more credible traceability chains in the mining sector from the point of origin through to export — something of particular value in a country where gold has long been associated with opacity, illegality, and reputational risk.

Commenting on the findings, Jesse Knutson, Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities, said: “At such a pivotal moment for Venezuela’s economic development, tokenisation represents a unique opportunity to rethink finance, bypassing the obsolete barriers that have historically hindered access to capital. By slashing issuance costs and reducing listing times from months to minutes, tokenisation allows vital sectors like energy and mining to leapfrog traditional bureaucracy. It doesn’t just drive operational efficiency; it fosters a direct, transparent connection between Venezuelan issuers and the global investment community”.