In this episode, Sunny Ray reconnects with Venezuelan Bitcoiners Abraham and Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of Ledn, roughly a year after their first conversation together. Abraham, a former Bitcoin miner, recounts fleeing Venezuela for Canada after being targeted by the government over his public mining advocacy, while Mauricio shares how his family's mining operation in 2015 led him to build Ledn, a platform offering Bitcoin-backed loans, savings accounts, and B2X loans across a hundred countries. The conversation moves into whether Bitcoin genuinely helps everyday people beyond enthusiasts, with both guests describing how it opened access to US-rate credit and remittances unavailable through traditional banks, especially given the risks of KYC with an antagonistic Maduro government. They trace Venezuela's authoritarian turn back to 1999 under Hugo Chavez and describe the disputed election following his death as the true trigger for the mass exodus. The discussion closes with a candid look at Ethereum's role in Venezuela, DeFi's promise and pitfalls, and emerging chains like Solana and Algorand racing to solve blockchain scalability. Throughout, the guests balance personal history with practical insight into Bitcoin's use as a lifeline for economic freedom.
Two Venezuelan Bitcoiners share how mining, loans, and Bitcoin became a real lifeline against economic collapse and authoritarian control.
Abraham, can you give us your backstory and how you got into Bitcoin?
I'm Venezuelan and a former miner. I started this journey around 2014. I sought refugee status in Canada after being targeted by the government for publicly promoting mining. They tried to take over the space with Petro, but it was all fake. I met Mauricio in Canada and we became close friends because we share almost the same background in crypto.
Mauricio, can you introduce yourself and tell us about Ledn?
I'm Venezuelan too. Like Abraham, my introduction to Bitcoin came through mining, starting around 2015 with my family. I saw miners had Bitcoin revenue but fiat expenses, and selling Bitcoin was the worst decision since it kept rising. So we built Ledn on Bitcoin-backed loans. Today we have three products, loans, savings accounts, and B2X, serving clients in a hundred countries.
Does Bitcoin actually serve a real need outside of Bitcoiners, especially in a place like Venezuela?
As an operator, I can tell you the doors Bitcoin opened that weren't there before, especially access to credit. Latin Americans couldn't get US-rate loans because they had no acceptable collateral. Bitcoin is the same asset everywhere, liquid, divisible, borderless, so it became perfect collateral. Some clients tell us Ledn is the only place they can get a loan at all.
Was the Venezuelan government always this authoritarian, or was there a turning point?
That happened when Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. Before that, Venezuela mostly lived in freedom and democracy, and the government wasn't hostile toward its people. With the Bolivarian revolution they took away our liberties, our economic freedom. KYC itself isn't bad, but when you KYC with a Venezuelan bank you're really handing that data to an antagonistic government that can track everything you own.
What was the real turning point that triggered the exodus from Venezuela?
It was right after Chavez died. We had a huge election, and I flew back to vote, everyone hopeful for change. The good guys were winning until 6pm, then the cheating started, ballots disappeared, witnesses were pushed out. By 11pm they announced Maduro had won. The winning candidate conceded instead of fighting. That's when people realized democracy was gone, and the exodus truly began.
Are other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum also popular among Venezuelans, or is it really just about Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is king in Venezuela, but Ethereum is there too, mostly as a way to eventually get Bitcoin. Many miners, myself included, hold different assets, even stablecoins. I'm not an Ethereum maximalist, I don't see it as a store of value, but I do recognize the value of its smart contract technology.
What are your thoughts on DeFi given the trust issues you mentioned with Bitcoin?
We watch the space closely, trying to tell real solutions from projects people only use for free tokens. Some ideas, like Curve's approach to swapping equivalent assets, are genuinely interesting, but static contracts running in the wild worry me. Look at this morning's rug pull, the liquidity providers walk away fine while retail buyers get left holding the bag. It feels too early to say DeFi is truly helping people yet.
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