Mexican Startup Wants to Support Venezuelans With $1 Million Crypto Airdrop

Mexican startup Airtm will launch a campaign to raise donations for Venezuelans, a country whose poor monetary policies have plagued it with hyperinflation.

Called the AirdropVenezuela.org, the campaign seeks to raise $1 million in cryptocurrency donations for residents of Venezuela. Once completed, the startup will airdrop the donations to over 100,000 verified Venezuelans who use the AirTM platform.

AirTM, founded in 2015, is a registered money service business (MSB) under the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) which mandates MSBs to be compliant with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations.

Over 200,000 individual and businesses use Airtm to “access remittance, payments, and donations at a free market rate, and to preserve wealth against the rapid devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar.”

Airtm will be working with Zcash Company, the issuer of privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash, along with Venezuelan educators and journalists. Earlier this year, Airtm integrated Zcash as an alternative step when converting bolivars to dollars:

“We believe that cryptocurrencies such as Zcash are beneficial for hedging against hyperinflation, day-to-day transactions, and remittances from families abroad. We are proud to support Airtm in this effort to educate and empower Venezuelans,” Zooko Wilcox, Zcash Company CEO, stated.

AirTM CEO, Ruben Galindo, told Bitcoin Magazine about his company’s desire to drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the Latin American country.

“Venezuela has long been used as an example of a country that desperately needs cryptocurrency. Sadly, however, there has been little to no effort to bring most cryptocurrencies to the Venezuelan people,” he explained.

“Airdrop Venezuela will be that first bridge for crypto projects that do care about impacting the end users in the region. Being value agnostic, we will work hand in hand with every crypto community to bring their technology and its specific benefits to those who need it the most.”

Donations for the AirdropVenezuela.org campaign can be made on the Airtm platform using any of the supported cryptocurrencies, including AirUSD, Airtm’s stablecoin.

Airtm runs a blockchain, peer-to-peer exchange platform wallet service that enables consumers and businesses in developing countries to exchange their fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies at a free market rate. Users can choose to exchange their local currency for dollars via a peer on the platform, send to others or withdraw them back to their local currency.