Fifteen hours of continuous broadcasting, with radio and television on at the same time, and a national donation pot that ended up weighing far more than expected. The “United for Venezuela” Telethon, organized by Venevisión, ended at midnight with $2,370,017 raised, surpassing the initial goal of $1.5 million and the second goal of $2.25 million, which was set along the way. The cause: those affected by the twin earthquakes, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, that struck on June 24.
The funds will be channeled through United Way Worldwide and its local affiliate, the Voluntary Dividend for the Community, chaired by Ramón Ostos, which was expected to begin distributing the money on Monday. The ultimate recipients are Cáritas Venezuela, the Children’s Orthopedic Hospital together with the Juan Pablo Dos Santos Foundation—which focuses on prosthetics for amputees—and Fe y Alegría. Ernst & Young will conduct the audit.
📊 The figures that show the scale of the effort
The official report cites at least 6,509 deaths, nearly 18,000 people affected, 856 damaged buildings and 190 collapsed ones, not counting the number of amputees left by the earthquake itself. The World Bank estimated direct physical damage at $19.6 billion and warned that a slow reconstruction could drag out the country’s economic recovery for a full decade.
Against this backdrop, Teletón’s $2.37 million is a powerful signal, but also a drop in the bucket compared with the total bill. And that’s where the conversation stops being purely emotional and becomes financial.
📈 From phone calls to USDT: how Venezuelans abroad donate today
The diaspora played a leading role in this edition. And a growing share of that diaspora no longer donates by credit card or international bank transfer, because those options remain expensive, slow, or simply inaccessible to anyone without an account at a foreign bank with an active correspondent relationship in Venezuela.
The alternative that has taken hold in recent years is the stablecoin. A Venezuelan in Chile, Spain, or Peru buys USDT on an exchange or through a local P2P platform, sends it to a relative or acquaintance in the country over a low-cost network, and that contact converts it to bolivars on the P2P market to make the donation or buy supplies. The whole transaction can be completed in minutes, any day of the week, without regard to banking hours.
🔎 The invisible cost of converting digital dollars into bolivars
This is the point PitbullChain keeps emphasizing: solidarity also comes with fees. Between the P2P spread, the exchange fee, the difference from the BCV official exchange rate, and the withdrawal fee to a Venezuelan bank, a $100 donation may arrive as just $92 or $95 in actual value, depending on the trading pair and the time. With a $2.37 million campaign, that margin is no longer negligible.
That’s why it’s worth taking a close look at which humanitarian organizations currently accept crypto payments or settlement via stablecoins, and which remain tied to a traditional banking system that is prohibitively expensive for small donors. Ernst & Young’s transparency is a valuable reputational shield, but on-chain traceability could resolve in seconds what an accounting audit takes weeks to reconstruct.
💰 Digital banking, limits, and the opportunity no one is seizing
The other front is domestic. Venezuelan banking has made progress in digitization, but its operational and transaction limits continue to push businesses, NGOs, and families toward cash and P2P. A telethon on this scale requires dozens of people to move funds, pay suppliers, and account for spending: exactly the kind of flow where digital banking should shine, and where the crypto ecosystem already offers infrastructure.
The question that lingers is simple: if the next emergency campaign were designed from day one with an on-chain-audited stablecoin payment gateway, publicly listed exchange rates, and same-day local settlement in bolivars, how much friction could be eliminated, and how much trust could be gained?
📖 Read the full article: https://pitbullchain.com/noticias/teleton-supera-meta-us-2-37-millones-y-el-dilema-de-donar-en-cripto-826454
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