{"id":129896,"date":"2025-05-23T20:16:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T20:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129896"},"modified":"2025-05-23T20:16:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T20:16:34","slug":"crypto-biz-from-shorting-the-venezuelan-bolivar-to-shorting-the-us-dollar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129896","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Biz: From shorting the Venezuelan Bolivar to shorting the US dollar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsWhen Venezuela was experiencing hyperinflation, Ledn co-founder Mauricio di Bartolomeo hedged against the collapsing local currency by shorting it in favor of the more stable US dollar. Today, he\u2019s using a similar strategy \u2014 this time borrowing against his Bitcoin (BTC) to hedge against the crumbling US dollar.
\nDi Bartolomeo connected with me during Canada Crypto Week in Toronto, where he talked about the advantages of Bitcoin-backed loans and the rapid growth of collateralized BTC lending. In our interview, he made a compelling case for continuing to stack sats, even as Bitcoin\u2019s price keeps rising.
\nThis week\u2019s Crypto Biz dives into our conversation with the Ledn co-founder and covers the latest business news from the blockchain world.
\nA lesson from hyperinflation
\nBefore Bitcoin, di Bartolomeo\u2019s most successful investment was shorting the Bolivar with US dollars, referring to his experience in Venezuela during the hyperinflationary 2010s.\u00a0
\n\u201cI was borrowing Bolivars and buying dollars with them, holding the hard dollars and having a borrow [position] on the weaker currency,\u201d he said.
\nHe then founded Ledn, a company that lets Bitcoin investors access dollar liquidity without parting ways with their BTC.\u00a0
\nBy borrowing against Bitcoin, \u201cyou\u2019re basically doing the same thing, but you are in effect holding the hard money, which is Bitcoin, and taking a borrow [position] on dollars, which is a weaker currency,\u201d he said.
\nMany Bitcoiners have found this to be a winning strategy. By the end of Q4, Ledn\u2019s loan book value was valued at $9.9 billion, according to Galaxy Research.
\nCointelegraph\u2019s Sam Bourgi and Ledn\u2019s Mauricio di Bartolomeo.Guatemala\u2019s largest bank integrates \u201cinvisible\u201d crypto infrastructure
\nBanco Industrial, Guatemala\u2019s largest bank, has integrated crypto infrastructure SukuPay into its mobile banking app, enabling users to receive US dollars more easily.
\nSukuPay said this integration is the first time a major Latin American retail bank has used a crypto-native protocol for its payment services.
\nBanco Industrial has more than 1,600 service locations across Guatemala and has also expanded into neighboring countries.\u00a0
\nThe \u201ckey to mainstream adoption of blockchain technology is making it invisible to the end-user,\u201d SukuPay CEO Yonathan Lapchik told Cointelegraph.\u00a0
\nWith SukuPay\u2019s technology, Banco Industrial app users can receive dollars from the US for a flat fee of $0.99, significantly lower than the typical 6% to 10% they currently pay, said Lapchik.
\nBankers are panicking about stablecoins, NYU professor claims
\nAmerica\u2019s banking lobby sees yield-bearing stablecoins as a threat to its business model, which relies on taking deposits, paying depositors minimal interest and using those funds for higher-risk investments, according to NYU professor Austin Campbell.
\nIn a May 21 social media post, Campbell claimed that he\u2019s heard rumblings of \u201cpanic\u201d over new stablecoins offering holders interest payments and other monetary rewards.\u00a0
\nHe told Democratic lawmakers that \u201cbanks want you to protect their cartel so they can keep screwing your voters.\u201d
\nAlthough Campbell didn\u2019t mention any stablecoin assets by name, Cointelegraph reported in February that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the country\u2019s first yield-bearing stablecoin security by Figure Markets. At the time of its launch, the YLDS stablecoin offered a yield of 3.85%.
\nPi Protocol and Spark Protocol have also developed interest-bearing tokens.\u00a0
\nSource: Austin CampbellStrategy continues to stack sats
\nWith Bitcoin back above $100,000, Michael Saylor\u2019s business intelligence firm, Strategy, has resumed its buying spree by acquiring 7,390 BTC last week for approximately $765 million.
\nThe latest purchase brings Strategy\u2019s total Bitcoin holdings to 576,230 BTC, with an unrealized gain of around $20 billion.
\nThe announcement came just two days before Bitcoin surged past its previous all-time high, climbing above $109,000 for the first time since January. Like other risk assets, Bitcoin has benefited from improved investor sentiment following the suspension of tariff hostilities between the United States and China.
\nSource: Michael SaylorCrypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsWhen Venezuela was experiencing hyperinflation, Ledn co-founder Mauricio di Bartolomeo hedged against the collapsing local currency by shorting it in favor of the more stable US dollar. Today,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129896"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}