GiveDirectly used USDC to deliver earthquake aid in Venezuela

GiveDirectly sent $340 each to 3,765 earthquake survivors in La Guaira, Venezuela, starting 21 days after the June 24 quakes, using USDC stablecoins and local payout rails. The nonprofit says the approach moved 86 cents of every donated dollar to recipients as cash while avoiding direct banking ties in a sanctions-hit market.

Why it matters: - GiveDirectly says the Venezuela response shows cash aid can move quickly in a sanctions-restricted market without recipients needing crypto wallets or U.S. bank accounts. - The pilot matters for emergency response because it used stablecoin rails, local cash-out partners and mobile payments to reach people in days, not months. - GiveDirectly says the model brought emergency cash closer to its goal of reaching crisis-affected families within five days.

What happened: - GiveDirectly delivered $340 each to 3,765 survivors of the twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026. - First payments went out 21 days after the earthquakes. - The response targeted Catia La Mar in La Guaira state, one of the areas hardest hit by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes. - GiveDirectly published the results and lessons on October 14, 2026. - The nonprofit worked with local organization Alimenta La Solidaridad.

The details: - GiveDirectly moved the aid as USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. - Recipients received bolívares through Pago Móvil, the mobile payment system many Venezuelans already use. - GiveDirectly used Coinbase Business to convert dollars to USDC on the Stellar network. - Decaf, a stablecoin payments platform, screened recipient details for compliance. - Vetted local cashiers on Airtm's marketplace exchanged the USDC for bolívares and paid recipients through Pago Móvil. - GiveDirectly says 86 cents of every donated dollar reached recipients as cash, above the 70 to 80 cents it expected. - Once recipients were verified, the median time to payment was four days. - Payments landed a median of two minutes after each batch was sent. - GiveDirectly had never worked in Venezuela and had no office or local team there. - Sanctions limited which banks and payment providers it could use, physical cash was scarce, and common ways of sending dollars required a U.S. bank account. - Recipients needed neither a crypto wallet nor a U.S. bank account. - GiveDirectly did not hold bolívares or transact directly with Venezuelan banks. - To choose where to work, GiveDirectly combined an AI-powered alert system, satellite damage assessments from DISHA, and volunteer mapping through the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and MapSwipe, then checked the findings on the ground. - People enrolled on their phones by scanning QR codes. - Automated ID and selfie checks meant only 5% of applications needed manual review, down from nearly 100% in GiveDirectly's first response in the Philippines.

Between the lines: - The response shows how stablecoins can function as a settlement layer while local banking systems handle the final payout. - The structure also shows the tradeoff of cash aid in inflationary or crisis settings: fast delivery does not guarantee that purchasing power lasts as long as planned. - GiveDirectly reported that the $340 transfer was meant to cover basic needs for about three months, but recipients said it lasted about three weeks as prices rose and more than 45% reported no regular income. - A registration glitch let roughly 1,500 more eligible people enroll than planned, and donors and a contingency fund covered them. - Because local cashiers hit daily banking limits, payment batches were capped at 100 to 300 people. - In early follow-up surveys, 95% of recipients said their sense of stability and wellbeing improved. - Sixty percent said the cash helped them restart or keep up income-generating work. - Ninety-seven percent said it arrived at the right time. - Half of respondents bought food and drinking water. - Families also bought hygiene supplies, paid for medicine and clinic visits, and replaced damaged mattresses and cooking stoves. - One recipient, Hector, 57, said, “My experience was amazing — it fell from the sky, because I used it to partly rebuild what the earthquake destroyed. And I still have further to go.” - Gianmarco Morassutti Vitale, GiveDirectly's Delivery Manager for Emergency Cash, wrote that each lesson brings the organization closer to its five-day emergency cash goal.

What's next: - GiveDirectly says the Venezuela response is no longer enrolling recipients. - The nonprofit is reviewing how it sets payment amounts after recipients said the transfer did not last as long as intended. - GiveDirectly accepts cryptocurrency donations through Endaoment. - The organization says it will keep pushing toward the goal of delivering emergency cash within five days of a crisis.

The bottom line: - GiveDirectly used USDC, local cash-out partners and mobile payments to move aid quickly into Venezuela, but inflation and payout limits showed how hard it is to preserve value and scale cash relief in crisis conditions.