Pro-Bitcoin Maria Corina Machado Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado has been promised the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, acknowledged for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee known as her “tireless work to advertise democratic rights for the individuals of Venezuela.”

However for a lot of within the Bitcoin group, the victory has one other which means – as a result of Machado is not only a democracy activist. She can be one of many few (however rising) international political figures who has done that openly embraced Bitcoin as a device of resistance in opposition to authoritarianism.

The Nobel Committee described Machado, 58, as “a lady who retains the flame of democracy going amid a rising darkness.”

It is a description that matches not solely her struggle in opposition to the present regime, but in addition her broader imaginative and prescient of how know-how – and decentralized cash – can empower residents when governments fail them.

“I am in shock,” Machado said after the announcement. “I am only one individual. I actually do not deserve this.”

“I dedicate this award to the struggling individuals of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive help of our trigger,” she mentioned wrote on X.

A recognition for braveness – and for staying

Machado’s political story is considered one of persistence beneath risk. She was barred from operating in final 12 months’s presidential election – which was extensively dismissed as rigged by worldwide observers forced into hiding however refused to depart Venezuela.

The Nobel Committee praised her as “a key determine in a ruthless authoritarian state now affected by a humanitarian and financial disaster.”

That disaster is one thing Machado has lengthy tried to elucidate in international boards: Venezuela’s financial collapse, she argues, was not an accident, however a predictable results of monetary repression and state management of cash.

And it’s right here that her views straight intersect with Bitcoin.

Machado: Bitcoin is a ‘lifeline’

In an interview first broadcast by Bitcoin Journal Final 12 months, Machado spoke at size about Venezuela’s financial collapse and the position Bitcoin has performed in serving to residents survive it.

“The Venezuelan bolivar has misplaced 14 zeros,” she mentioned, recalling how inflation as soon as reached 1.7 million p.c. “This monetary repression – rooted in state-sponsored looting, theft and uncontrolled cash printing – has destroyed our economic system regardless of our huge oil wealth.”

For a lot of Venezuelans, Bitcoin turned the one various. It has given households the flexibility to retailer worth outdoors the collapsing bolívar, obtain remittances with out repossession, and even finance their escapes from the nation.

Machado known as Bitcoin a “lifeline” for Venezuelans, a strategy to keep away from government-controlled trade charges. She proposed together with Bitcoin in Venezuela’s future nationwide reserves because the nation tries to regain its stolen wealth and rebuild its dictatorship.

Machado additionally proposed together with Bitcoin in Venezuela’s future nationwide reserves as a part of the nation’s post-dictatorship restoration.

“We see Bitcoin as a part of our nationwide reserves, serving to to rebuild what the dictatorship has stolen,” she mentioned Bitcoin Journal.

Machado’s emphasis on transparency displays considered one of Bitcoin’s core ideas: a ledger that’s incorruptible by design. It’s an concept that resonates with freedom and justice.