The Truth Behind Cuba’s Bitcoin Revolution: An on-the-ground report
In Cuba’s capital, Havana, a Bitcoin community has emerged from an economically antagonistic environment.
“Satoshi didn’t create Bitcoin for Cubans, but it really comes in handy for us,” Forte, co-founder of the aptly named local Bitcoin organization Cuba Bitcoin, tells Magazine.
Cubans are turning to Bitcoin because their money is increasingly worthless. Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Lebanon often compete for media coverage about runaway inflation levels, but the Cuban peso is not far behind.
The Cuban peso has devalued so much over the last few years that carrying bags of cash is increasingly common among the rich and the poor.
In practice, even if someone bought Bitcoin at the top of the 2021 bull run at $69,000, their money is worth much less in Cuban pesos. Whereas Bitcoin dropped 80% to its bear market low, it has since recovered 100%, and the peso has devalued by 90%.
The realization that someone should swap local currency for the Bitcoin top, knowing that it will crash and they’ll still retain more purchasing power, is one of the many financial wake-up calls received while working on Cointelegraph’s new documentary, The Truth Behind Cuba’s Bitcoin Revolution.
In 2021, I came across the article “Inside Cuba’s Bitcoin Revolution” by Human Rights Foundation chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein, in which he explains how and why Cubans were utilizing Bitcoin’s stateless and low-fee properties to save money and escape financial oppression.
In line with the Bitcoin mantra of Don’t trust, Verify, I went to see with my own eyes what Gladstein described.
Camera in hand with my trusty travel partner Paco de la India by my side, I network my way into the Cuba Bitcoin community, which now counts thousands of enthusiasts and advocates.
La Cultura Cubana
Following one of the largest financial conferences in the world, Bitcoin Miami, in arguably the world’s most capitalist arena, the United States of America, I hop across the Caribbean to Cuba, one of the few extant socialist states. The contrast hits me harder than the Cuban tropical heat.
From the moment I landed at Havana Jose Marti International Airport, I noticed some funny quirks: doors open manually (forget automatic sensors), check-in and immigration are done on pen and paper, and the taxis are 1950s Chevrolets.
It’s common to describe visiting Cuba as a time warp. It’s not hyperbole; Cuba cannot access world markets, financial institutions or trade. The United States has subjected Cuba to a trade embargo — the longest in modern history — since the island nation nationalized U.S. oil refineries in 1960.
As a result, Cuban industry, economic output and commerce lag far behind the modern world.
The embargo, coupled with more than half a century of communism, has resulted in a highly educated, extraordinarily literate but desperately poor and hungry population, many of whom possess a heartbreaking desire to leave the island, or in Spanish, to find a “salida” — an exit.
Why stay in a country where a taxi driver earns more than an atomic engineer — and the emaciated engineer struggles to feed their family?
Adopting Bitcoin
In such an environment, it’s a wonder why Cubas don’t flock to Bitcoin as money that exists outside of state control. However, many Cubans are learning about and slowly turning to Bitcoin.
Catrya, one of the main characters in Cointelegraph’s new documentary and one of the founders of Cuba Bitcoin, explains that there could be around 5,000 Bitcoiners in Cuba, and if you include crypto enthusiasts generally, the number is higher still.
Cubans do not have easy on-ramps into crypto. Firstly, those with internet connections cannot sign up for Binance, Coinbase or Gemini due to their nationality. For Cuban Americans on the island, Cuba’s government restricts access to American websites. Cubans buy Bitcoin peer-to-peer through Telegram or WhatsApp groups and at in-person meetups.
What amazes me is the tiny amounts of money Cubans put aside to save money or “stack sats.” Saving 1,000 satoshis (less than $1 a week) is meaningful to a Cuban on $40 monthly. The Cuban peso may not be here in 10 years, but Bitcoin certainly will be.
The peer-to-peer process is straightforward, but it’s not beginner-friendly, and these hurdles can hamper adoption — although they do have a silver lining, as Catrya explains:
“Since we’re denied [access to exchanges] by default for being Cuban, we can never do KYC [Know Your Customer], so that’s a good thing for us, at least in terms of privacy.”
Buying Bitcoin peer-to-peer and storing Bitcoin by taking ownership of the private keys is safer. Customers who trusted custodians such as FTX, BlockFi, Celsius and Vauld with their crypto were wiped out. Cubans don’t have that option, and while it takes longer, it’s more secure.
Erich Garcia Cruz, the founder of QvaPay and BitRemesas — a currency remitter using Bitcoin that boasts tens of thousands of Cuban users — says that the small but growing number of Bitcoin customers somewhat represents Cuba’s fledgling internet culture.
Connectivity and freedom of information
Cubans could get online in earnest from 2013. So, while the rest of the world was enjoying the iPhone 5C and 4G, a few lucky Cubans fortunate to access a computer could get online that year, albeit with an awful internet connection.
Now, Cubans can access 3G and sometimes 4G connectivity on their phones. The tech-savvy and younger Cubans use VPNs to circumnavigate online restrictions.
Generally, the lag in internet infrastructure combined with the cost and difficulty of buying a smartphone on a frighteningly low salary means Cuba is way behind in IT.
In 2021, the World Bank reported that three-quarters of Cuba has access to the internet. But while the issue is improving, internet censorship is rife, and Cubans are repeatedly told to trust the government through state-sponsored TV, newspapers and media.
Independent media publications are classified as “enemy propaganda,” which is something I was made aware of a few times during my investigation. I won’t share those stories here, but it’s safe to say reciting such stories would’ve landed me in trouble had I stayed in Cuba.
Two exiled Cuban journalists have since advised me to avoid returning to the island for some time, especially if the Cointelegraph documentary gets a lot of attention.
A funny caveat to the state-run media is that some Cubans were orange-pilled by Bitcoin proponent Max Keiser. His appearances on the Russia Today news channel were approved for broadcast in Cuba. Some of Catrya’s peers watched the show where Keiser bashes fiat currencies and promotes Bitcoin.
And yet, Bitcoin is magic internet money; it lives on the web. If Cubans aren’t online — or watching Russia Today — how can they know about it?
Orange pill Cuba
Bitalion, one of the Cuba Bitcoin founders, works in telecommunications for the government. He explains that as a privileged public sector worker, he benefits from better internet connection speeds and lower online censorship levels.
Bitalion stumbled across the Bitcoin white paper in 2014 and became infatuated with the idea of an independent, borderless currency. He rhetorically poses the question: For those fortunate Cubans who are able to travel abroad, what can they bring to the new country? The peso in their pocket, or Bitcoin in a mobile wallet?
As with the other Bitcoin advocates on the island, Bitalion volunteers his time to educate people and support Bitcoin adoption. He’s also one of the handful of Cubans running a Bitcoin node. At Cuba’s first-ever Bitcoin-only meetup, he demonstrates to dozens of Cubans how to pay for goods and services directly to his Lightning Network node.
Cruz, Forte and countless business owners explain that Bitcoin is an easy “orange pill” to swallow, particularly for the digitally capable Cubans. You merely explain to them that nobody controls it; it’s stateless money.
At face value, Bitcoin is a useful tool for a country that has been financially and economically handicapped for generations. But for Forte, Catrya and Bitalion, the ideology of Bitcoin resonates strongly.
Forte jokes, “Satoshi didn’t create Bitcoin for Cubans, but it really comes in handy for us.”
In the hope of encouraging more Cubans to explore Bitcoin, the trio and the Cuba Bitcoin community host monthly educational meetups in which they explain the principles of Bitcoin and delve into its philosophy.
They recently introduced the popular Mi Primer Bitcoin (My First Bitcoin) program in the country, which is already picking up speed in El Salvador and will soon be instructed in schools nationwide.
Por qué aceptas Bitcoin? Why do you accept Bitcoin?
QvaPay’s Cruz explains that Bitcoin is the financial tool that allows the small but growing number of Cuban business owners to access foreign products.
Recent U.S. presidential administrations had fluctuating policies on the Cuban embargo, relaxing and tightening different aspects based on political expediency.
Cruz orange-pills suppliers in an attempt to open up the Cuban economy to international markets where possible:
“You are accepting Bitcoin because you’re dealing with a private [independent] coin. The government doesn’t have access to the transactions you and you have the freedom to do whatever you want.”
The term “freedom,” or “libertad,” popped up frequently as I mingled and met with Cuban Bitcoiners, crypto enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. The fact that citizens can hold money in a wallet, outside of government overreach, appealed to many Cubans whom the government has consistently let down.
The ability to store wealth on a mobile phone in a Bitcoin Lightning wallet instead of in pesos at a bank is also an efficiency gain. It means no more queues at banks to cash in money that could devalue by a few pesos over a bank holiday weekend.
Cruz and three other business owners also share that accepting Bitcoin benefits holidaymakers. Adan, a nightclub, bar and restaurant owner, explains that tourists bring a lot of cash to Cuba for vacation — and that’s risky.
Having Bitcoin on a mobile phone in a wallet is a safer way to travel than flashing wads of dollar bills that end up on the black market in Cuba, inadvertently supporting the illicit and sometimes dangerous black market activity of exchanging notes in public.
Adan accepts Bitcoin because of the international branding the Bitcoin logo brings. It opens up his bars’ doors to another potential market. Similar to El Salvador, where Bitcoin tourism has become a trend, bars and restaurants in Cuba could also attract holidaymakers to spend satoshis instead of pesos at the till.
Finally, there are myriad ways in which adopting Bitcoin can lead to positive and unexpected outcomes. Mister Navi’s bar and restaurant, run by Mr. Navi and his son Julian, recently began accepting Bitcoin. Following a conversation with Forte, Catrya and Bitalion, the Cuba Bitcoin group now hosts educational Bitcoin meetups at the venue.
I tipped one of the service staff in Bitcoin at Mr. Navi’s the first day we visited. Five days later, I saw her again when we went out for dinner with Mr. Navi and Julian. She seems different — I ask her if she is OK. She confesses that she was mugged a few days ago, and the attacker stole her purse, cash and phone.
To her surprise, when she downloaded the Bitcoin Lightning app where I’d tipped her, the funds magically reappeared on her new phone. On seeing her wide-eyed reaction, I tipped her again.
It’s clear that, for Cubans, Bitcoin could represent a critical instrument for securing their financial future in the face of runaway inflation and government interference, or as a way of opening up to embargoed markets and the international financial world.
Disclaimer: The views, opinions and perspectives expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Cointelegraph.
Hungary has updated its Criminal Code, imposing potential prison sentences for those using or running unauthorized crypto exchanges.
Wes Streeting has stepped up his war of words with junior doctors by telling Labour MPs that strikes would be “a gift to Nigel Farage”.
In a hard-hitting speech to the Parliamentary Labour Party, the health secretary claimed ministers were “in the fight for the survival of the NHS“.
And he said that if Labour failed in its fight, the Reform UK leader would campaign for the health service to be replaced by an insurance-style system.
Mr Streeting‘s tough warning to Labour MPs came ahead of a showdown with the British Medical Association (BMA) this week in which he will call on the doctors to call off the strikes.
The BMA has announced plans for five days of strikes by resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – in England, which are due to begin on 25 July.
At a meeting in parliament at which he received a warm reception from Labour MPs, Mr Streeting said: “The BMA’s threats are unnecessary, unreasonable, and unfair.
“More than that, these strikes would be a gift to Nigel Farage, just as we are beginning to cut waiting lists and get the NHS moving in the right direction.
“What better recruitment agent could there be for his right-wing populist attacks on the very existence of a publicly funded, free at the point of need, universal health service? He is praying that we fail on the NHS.
“If Labour fail, he will point to that as proof that the NHS has failed and must now be replaced by an insurance-style system. So we are in the fight for the survival of the NHS, and it is a fight I have no intention of losing.”
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Why are junior doctors striking again?
The threatened strikes are in pursuit of a 29% pay rise that the BMA is demanding to replace what it claims is lost pay in recent years. The government has awarded a 5.4% pay increase this year after a 22% rise for the previous two years.
Earlier, appearing before the all-party health and social care committee of MPs, Mr Streeting said the strikes would be a “catastrophic mistake” and not telling employers about their intention to strike would be “shockingly irresponsible”.
He said BMA leaders seemed to be telling their members “not to inform their trusts or their employers if they’re going out on strike” and that he could not fathom “how any doctor in good conscience would make it harder for managers to make sure we have safe staffing levels”.
He said: “Going on strike having received a 28.9% pay increase is not only unreasonable and unnecessary, given the progress that we’ve been making on pay and other issues, it’s also self-defeating.”
Read more:
Unite votes to suspend Rayner over Birmingham bin strike
Minister hints at tax rises in next budget
He said he accepted doctors’ right to strike, but added: “The idea that doctors would go on strike without informing their employer, not allowing planning for safe staffing, I think, is unconscionable, and I would urge resident doctors who are taking part in strike actions to do the right thing.”
Mr Streeting warned the strikes would lead to cancellations and delays in patient treatment and spoke of a family member who was waiting for the “inevitable” phone call informing them that their procedure would be postponed.
“We can mitigate against the impact of strikes, and we will, but what we cannot do is promise that there will be no consequence and no delay, no further suffering, because there are lots of people whose procedures are scheduled over that weekend period and in the period subsequently, where the NHS has to recover from the industrial action, who will see their operations and appointments delayed,” he said.
“I have a relative in that position. My family are currently dreading what I fear is an inevitable phone call saying that there is going to be a delay to this procedure. And I just think this is an unconscionable thing to do to the public, not least given the 28.9% pay rise.”
Reform UK is on the march.
Following a barnstorming performance in this year’s local elections, they are now the most successful political party on TikTok, engaging younger audiences.
But most of their 400,000 followers are men.
Politics Hub: Follow live updates from Westminster
‘They don’t exclude anyone, we’re all the same,’ says this Reform supporter
I was at the local elections launch for Reform in March, looking around for any young women to interview who had come to support the party at its most ambitious rally yet, and I was struggling.
A woman wearing a “let’s save Britain” hat walked by, and I asked her to help me.
“Now you say it, there are more men here,” she said. But she wasn’t worried, adding: “We’ll get the women in.”
And that probably best sums up Reform’s strategy.
When Nigel Farage threw his hat into the ring to become an MP for Reform, midway through the general election campaign, they weren’t really thinking about the diversity of their base.
As a result, they attracted a very specific politician. Fewer than 20% of general election candidates for Reform were women, and the five men elected were all white with a median age of 60.
Polling shows that best, too.
According to YouGov’s survey from June 2025, a year on from the election, young women are one of Reform UK’s weakest groups, with just 7% supporting Farage’s party – half the rate of men in the same age group. The highest support comes from older men, with a considerable amount of over-65s backing Reform – almost 40%.
But the party hoped to change all that at the local elections.
Sarah Pochin became Reform UK’s first woman MP in May. Pic: PA
Time to go pro
It was the closing act of Reform’s September conference and Farage had his most serious rallying cry: it was time for the party to “professionalise”.
In an interview with me last year, Farage admitted “no vetting” had occurred for one of his new MPs, James McMurdock.
Only a couple of months after he arrived in parliament, it was revealed he had been jailed after being convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend in 2006 while drunk outside a nightclub.
McMurdock told me earlier this year: “I would like to do my best to do as little harm to everyone else and at the same time accept that I was a bad person for a moment back then. I’m doing my best to manage the fact that something really regrettable did happen.”
He has since suspended himself from the party over allegations about his business affairs. He has denied any wrongdoing.
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‘He wasn’t vetted,’ says Farage of MP
Later, two women who worked for another of Reform’s original MPs, Rupert Lowe, gave “credible” evidence of bullying or harassment by him and his team, according to a report from a KC hired by the party.
Lowe denies all wrongdoing and says the claims were retaliation after he criticised Farage in an interview with the Daily Mail, describing his then leader’s style as “messianic”.
The Crown Prosecution Service later said it would not charge Lowe after an investigation. He now sits as an independent MP.
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Farage leading a ‘cult’ says ex-Reform MP
A breakthrough night
But these issues created an image problem and scuppered plans for getting women to join the party.
So, in the run-up to the local elections, big changes were made.
The first big opportunity presented itself when a by-election was called in Runcorn and Helsby.
The party put up Sarah Pochin as a candidate, and she won a nail-biting race by just six votes. Reform effectively doubled their vote share there compared to the general election – jumping to 38% – and brought its first female MP into parliament.
And in the Lincolnshire mayoral race – where Andrea Jenkyns was up for the role – they won with 42% of the vote.
The council results that night were positive, too, with Reform taking control of 10 local authorities. They brought new recruits into the party – some of whom had never been involved in active politics.
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Inside Reform’s election success
‘The same vibes as Trump’
Catherine Becker is one of them and says motherhood, family, and community is at the heart of Reform’s offering. It’s attracted her to what she calls Reform’s “common sense” policies.
As Reform’s parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Highgate in last year’s general election, and now a councillor, she also taps into Reform’s strategy of hyper-localism – trying to get candidates to talk about local issues of crime, family, and law and order in the community above everything else.
Catherine Becker believes Reform have widened their appeal by tapping into local issues
Jess Gill was your quintessential Labour voter: “I’m northern, I’m working class, I’m a woman, based on the current stereotype that would have been the party for me.”
But when Sir Keir Starmer knelt for Black Lives Matter, she said that was the end of her love affair with the party, and she switched.
“Women are fed up of men not being real men,” she says. “Starmer is a bit of a wimp, where Nigel Farage is a funny guy – he gives the same vibes as Trump in a way.”
Jess Gill switched from Labour to Reform
‘Shy Reformers’
But most of Reform’s recruits seem to have defected from the Conservative Party, according to the data, and this is where the party sees real opportunity.
Anna McGovern was one of those defectors after the astonishing defeat of the Tories in the general election.
She thinks there may be “shy Reformers” – women who support the party but are unwilling to speak about it publicly.
“You don’t see many young women like myself who are publicly saying they support Reform,” she says.
“I think many people fear that if they publicly say they support Reform, what their friends might think about them. I’ve faced that before, where people have made assumptions of my beliefs because I’ve said I support Reform or more right-wing policies.”
Anna McGovern defected to Reform from the Conservatives
But representation isn’t their entire strategy. Reform have pivoted to speaking about controversial topics – the sort they think the female voters they’re keen to attract may be particularly attuned to.
“Reform are speaking up for women on issues such as transgenderism, defining what a woman is,” McGovern says.
And since Reform’s original five MPs joined parliament, grooming gangs have been mentioned 159 times in the Commons – compared to the previous 13 years when it was mentioned 88 times, despite the scandal first coming to prominence back in 2011.
But the pitfall of that strategy is where it could risk alienating other communities. Pochin, Reform’s first and only female MP, used her first question in parliament to the prime minister to ask if he would ban the burka – something that isn’t Reform policy, but which she says was “punchy” to “get the attention to start the debate”.
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Reform UK MP pushes for burka ban
‘What politics is all about’
Alex Philips was the right-hand woman to Farage during the Brexit years. She’s still very close to senior officials in Reform and a party member, and tells me these issues present an opportunity.
“An issue in politics is a political opportunity and what democracy is for is actually putting a voice to a representation, to concerns of the public. That’s what politics is all about.”
Read more:
Are Reform winning the ‘bro vote’?
Reform would win most seats at election
Alex Philips remains close to senior members of Reform UK
Luke Tryl is the executive director of the More In Common public opinion and polling firm, and says the shift since the local elections is targeted and effective.
Reform’s newer converts are much more likely to be female, as the party started to realise you can’t win a general election without getting the support of effectively half the electorate.
“When we speak to women, particularly older women in focus groups, there is a sense that women’s issues have been neglected by the traditional mainstream parties,” he says. “Particularly issues around women’s safety, and women’s concerns aren’t taken as seriously as they should be.
“If Reform could show it takes their concerns seriously, they may well consolidate their support.”
Pollster Luke Tryl thinks Reform have become more targeted and effective
According to his focus groups, the party’s vote share among women aged 18 to 26 shot up in May – jumping from 12% to 21% after the local elections. But the gender divide in right-wing parties is still stark, Tryl says, and representation will remain an uphill battle for a party historically dogged by controversy and clashes.
A Reform UK spokesman told Sky News: “Reform is attracting support across all demographics.
“Our support with women has surged since the general election a year ago, in that time we have seen Sarah Pochin and Andrea Jenkyns elected in senior roles for the party.”
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