Bitcoin soars to almost $10,000 USD in Zimbabwe due to a lack of cash

Zimbabwe is once again facing enormous economic problems. And this is not for the first time.

In the mid-2000s, the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank printed huge amounts of Zimbabwean dollars to pay all government spendings. This mass printing of money led, of course, to a severe hyperinflation. According to Wikipedia, Zimbabwe's peak month of inflation is estimated at 79.6 billion percent in mid-November 2008.
In 2009, the African country decided to stop printing its currency and began to use currencies from other countries instead to get rid of the hyperinflation. By the end of 2015 Zimbabwe has completely switched to the US dollar.

Banks are running out of cash

So the American dollar is being used in the country for quite some time now, but a new problem has emerged recently. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain US dollars.
In a conversation with a Zimbabwean newspaper, Governor John Mangudya of the Central Bank of Zimbabwe stated that $10 million USD a week is being imported, but there has been such a huge run on money that this amount is not enough anymore.

“Yes, we import cash almost every week and we are now importing $10 million on a weekly basis. When we say we import cash, we say we import dollars because we said we want to continue using the dollar in this economy.” ~ Governor John Mangudya of the Central Bank of Zimbabwe

This has created a bank run and allows citizens to withdraw only 20 dollars at the bank each time, regardless of how much each individual has in its bank account.

To fix the problem, the central bank started issuing bond notes that should have the same value as the US dollar, but many businesses refuse to accept them or charge huge premiums to accept them.

Bitcoin as alternative

Because it is increasingly difficult to obtain US dollars, more and more Zimbabweans are looking for alternatives, such as bitcoin.
According to Golix.io, an African digital currency website, traders are paying $9,800 US dollar for one Bitcoin right now, which is about 50% more than the normal market price.

Bitcoin adoption in Zimbabwe is skyrocketing!

I love to see Bitcoin is helping people in the African country survive times of economic uncertainty!

Thank God there's finally a currency that won't fail the Zimbabweans like fiat currencies did. This can only be a currency that is not issued by a government, such as Bitcoin!

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