Lebanon is suffering from financial and Healthcare crises in the country. Amid the country’s crisis and inflation, Lebanon’s citizens are attracted to USDT coins.
- Citizens of Lebanon adopting cryptocurrency for the transaction
- 70% of Customers pay in USDT in Restaurants
- What happened in the Past?
Lebanon was one of the most developed countries in the world got, independent on 22 November 1943 over french rule. The main source of income in the country is service, and the banking sector contributes 70% of the country’s gross national product.
According to the observed data from 2009 – 2021, the average inflation rate was 22.7% per year.
In 2021 Inflation rate seems to be 154.8%, and as per the calculation, the item cost 100 pounds in 2009 and 644.36 pounds in early 2022. In 2022 inflation rate is 544.36%.
USDT is an asset-based stablecoin issued by Tether, getting popular in Lebanon. Citizens of Lebanon use stablecoins to pay in cafes, restaurants, tours, and electronic stores. One restaurant in Lebanon reported that 70% of its customer pay through USDT coins.
Georgio Abou Gebrael, a Lebanese architect, explained to CNBC, “The use of USDT is widespread. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, and electronics stores that accept USDT as payment, so that’s convenient if I need to spend not in fiat, but from my bitcoin savings. The government has much bigger problems right now than to worry about some stores accepting cryptocurrency.”
Citizens’ high interest in USDT and other coins caused hyperinflation in the country. As a result, the bank restricts their customer from withdrawing cash, or the bank itself seems to be closed in the country.
At the start, when USDT was not so popular for general payment in the country, Gabriel paid for his groceries and other basics through USDT through a service called Fixedfloat which he earned from freelance work for Tether.
Gabriel started finding someone on the Telegram group to trade Tether (USDT) in US dollars, but Tether was not popular and trustworthy then; Gabriel suffered a lot to swap Tether in US dollars.
From then, USDT started its journey to be a popular mode of payment among citizens of Lebanon. “It’s easy here to get cash from crypto,” said El Hajj of his experience. “There’s a lot of guys that exchange USDT for cash.”
This happened in the Past on 22 May 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz ordered two Domino’s Pizzas from jercos for 10,000 BTC, and it was a day remembered for the Bitcoins to get popular in the world.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/11/11/history-repeating-itself-rising-popularity-of-usdt-amid-inflation-in-lebanon/