The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner who defeated Trump, is there also a connection with Bitcoin?

Original Title: Bitcoin is the currency of resistance, says Nobel Laureate

Original author: Byron Gilliam

Source:

Reprint: Mars Finance

Maria Corina Machado received the news of her Nobel Peace Prize while being trapped.

This “Iron Lady of Venezuela” and “Joan of Arc of Latin America” has been in hiding since Nicolás Maduro threatened to impose “supreme justice” on her after the 2024 election, which clearly showed that she is the legitimate president of Venezuela.

Machado reported that since then she has experienced assassination attempts and kidnappings, but refuses to leave the country.

She sent her three children to a safe place abroad but chose to stay herself. According to the Nobel Committee, “this choice inspired millions.”

This is an example that should resonate outside of Venezuela: “Maria Corina Machado demonstrated that the tools of democracy are also tools of peace,” the committee added.

Machado said that one of these tools is Bitcoin.

She told the Human Rights Foundation that the Maduro regime “weaponizes the financial system against its people,” citing hyperinflation that once reached 10 million percent in 2018.

Since 2008, the Venezuelan government has confiscated its citizens' savings by removing 14 zeros from its national currency, meaning that today it takes 1 trillion bolivars to buy what one bolivar could buy in 2008.

“The value of holding a bag of candy far exceeds that of possessing a bag of national currency,” said a property-stripped Venezuelan, “because candy can retain its value.”

Machado argues that Bitcoin is a better and cheaper means of storing value: “Some Venezuelans have found a lifeline in Bitcoin, using it to protect their wealth and fund their escape.”

However, Machado himself did not use it to escape.

“Our campaign operates without banking channels,” Machado said. “But they can still accept donations: unlike bank transfers that are usually blocked by the regime, Bitcoin donations cannot be confiscated.”

In this sense, Bitcoin has helped Machado lead the fight against Maduro within Venezuela.

It allows many other Venezuelans to survive and resist Maduro.

“Bitcoin has bypassed government-imposed exchange rates and has helped many of our people,” Machado added. “It has evolved from a humanitarian tool into a crucial means of resistance.”

Another protesting Venezuelan, Jorge Hraisati from the Economic Inclusion Organization, stated that this makes Bitcoin part of a “technical strategy” against authoritarianism.

“The key to defeating authoritarian regimes lies in citizens having widespread access to free technologies like Bitcoin, Signal, and Nostr,” he wrote.

Bitcoin particularly empowers his compatriots “the ability to overcome Maduro's financial surveillance and repression.”

Many places in the world live under similar oppressive conditions.

Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation estimates that “87% of humanity is born either under authoritarian regimes or into collapsing fiat systems.”

He explained that in much of the world, “the traditional banking system is no longer sufficient to effectively fund democratic work.”

However, Bitcoin is “maintaining the vitality of resistance” in places where government-issued currencies “cannot be used for basic human rights activities.”

Gladstone said that Bitcoin is increasingly becoming the currency for these activities and is moving towards becoming the standard currency for human rights activism and other fields “before 2030.”

We are used to seeing the grand price targets for Bitcoin in 2030, but can it achieve a larger activist goal?

If achieved, the Nobel Committee may be praised for lending a helping hand.

Gladstein pointed out that “the vast majority of Bitcoin critics live in the United States or Europe and are blinded by immense financial privilege.”

By awarding the Peace Prize to an enthusiastic user, the Nobel Committee may help eliminate bias and improve the image of Bitcoin in the 13% of the world where it is not needed (besides as an investment).

For Machado, the main benefit of the Nobel Peace Prize is that she will be safer after becoming more famous.

“This has increased her recognition and raised the cost of attempts to suppress and destroy her,” explained Gideon Rose of the Council on Foreign Relations. “By granting her efforts the recognition of benevolent international public opinion, the Nobel Prize may protect her life.”

For Bitcoin, the significance of this award lies in the fact that Machado has also given her goodwill recognition to the often maligned cryptocurrency, which may protect it from the attacks of critics.

Because only despots like Maduro would oppose free technology.