In addition, there is strict currency control in Bolivia and an official exchange rate set since November 2011 at 6.9 BOB. And since the country imports most of its products, for which dollars are required, the lack of access to official dollars has forced entrepreneurs to turn to the parallel market dollar. This has exacerbated the loss of purchasing power of Bolivians and led the government to consider joining the global trend of de-dollarization.

According to Jonathan Fortun, an economist at the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the weakening of the Bolivian economy and the decline in export revenues fueled the exchange rate gap with the parallel dollar. This, at the same time, increased the demand for dollars in the country due to economic uncertainty and the perception of a potential devaluation of the boliviano.

This created an exchange rate differential with the blue dollar that even reached 200% in May 2025, when the parallel rate reached 20 BOB per dollar. Today, at 10.2 BOB, the differential has fallen to 48%.

A turning point for cryptocurrencies in Bolivia

This scarcity of dollars was one of the reasons that motivated the favorable shift towards cryptocurrencies in 2023, but without the outreach and education work undertaken by local communities, this idea probably would not have been considered. Even former presidential candidate Jaime Dunn acknowledged that the legalization of cryptocurrencies would be a release valve in the currency crisis.