Venezuela shuts down banks amid panic, Bitcoin trading soars

Despite only having 33 cases of coronavirus throughout Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro today placed the entire country under quarantine to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

And in compliance with Maduro’s decree, the entire national banking system has shut its doors for an indefinite period of time. Meanwhile, Bitcoin trading within Venezuela appears to be on the rise.

Antonio Morales Rodriguez, head of the SUDEBAN—the highest regulatory body for all banking activity in Venezuela—issued a letter addressed to the nation’s banks earlier this week, urging them to close their doors with no clear date of return to normalcy:

“I am writing this letter … to instruct you that, starting Monday, March 16, 2020, all activities involving direct attention to customers, users and the general public through agencies, branches, offices and administrative headquarters throughout the country will be indefinitely suspended,” Rodriguez’s letter states.

News of the bank closures,…