Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced plans to closely monitor the remittance systems that are integrated between the US and Mexico in a bid to stop illegal Mexican immigrants sending around $24 billion home every year. In a knee-jerk reaction, Mexican trade volume on LocalBitcoins spiked to a new all-time high, as fearful Mexicans ran for the hills and opted to begin using a new alternative remittance system to get their money home safely.
LocalBitcoins is Wildly Popular
LocalBitcoins is seeing a lot of traffic from a number of locations where crypto exchanges are not yet regulated, crypto trading is outlawed, or there is a lot of civil unrest. In November, Venezuela proved LocalBitcoins’ use as its trade volume went through the roof. In a bid to curtail Bitcoin usage in the country, Maduro attempted to block LocalBitcoins, but failed miserably. Mexico recently introduced tougher regulations and laws for crypto exchanges, implementing stringent KYC and AML checks at every point. This has made LocalBitcoins a rather popular solution seeing as a large portion of the funds coming in from America is illegally earned – according to Trump, at least.
Will Crypto Build Trump’s Great Wall?
Earlier this year, Trump shut down the US Government for the longest period in history as he tried to squeeze funding for his border wall out of congress. However, the move failed miserably and he left millions of government workers without pay for months on end. One alternative could be a cryptocurrency in the form of an STO. Trump could divide up the meterage of the wall and tokenize these portions. These tokens would then be sold via an STO, giving investors a chance to own a slice of the Great Wall of America. It’s not quite the crypto news Mexicans were hoping for, but they are clearly afraid of the Trump administration.
Remittance is the Main Issue
Trump isn’t known to be a fan of illegal immigrants, as his public statements often show. But, Trump is simply looking to keep money in the American system to appease his voters. It’s estimated that $24 billion every year is sent from the US to Mexico after illegal immigrants work long hours for low wages without permits. If the volume wasn’t so high, there is a good chance Trump wouldn’t have made it an issue. Instead of clamping down, Trump could offer up a better remittance system similar to the deal between Western Union and Coins.ph. By controlling the entire remittance system, Trump could keep tabs on who is sending what and where.
As Trump ramps up his rhetoric, LocalBitcoins usage in Mexico will continue to spike and create new all-time highs. With election season fast approaching, we could see Trump and other candidates start to draw their battle lines with Mexico – using cryptocurrency as a key point of contention.
