Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, acknowledged for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee known as her “tireless work selling democratic rights for the individuals of Venezuela.”
However for a lot of within the Bitcoin group, the win carries one other layer of that means — as a result of Machado isn’t only a democracy activist. She’s additionally one in every of few (however rising) international political figures who has overtly embraced Bitcoin as a instrument of resistance in opposition to authoritarianism.
The Nobel Committee described Machado, 58, as “a girl who retains the flame of democracy going amidst a rising darkness.”
It’s an outline that matches not simply her combat in opposition to the present regime however her bigger imaginative and prescient of how know-how — and decentralized cash — can empower residents when governments fail them.
“I’m in shock,” Machado stated after the announcement. “I’m only one individual. I actually don’t deserve this.”
“I dedicate this prize to the struggling individuals of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive assist of our trigger,” she wrote on X.
A recognition for braveness — and for staying
Machado’s political story is one in every of persistence underneath risk. Barred from working in final 12 months’s presidential election — which worldwide observers extensively dismissed as rigged — she was compelled into hiding however refused to depart Venezuela.
The Nobel Committee praised her as “a key, unifying determine in a brutal authoritarian state that’s now struggling 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 end result of monetary repression and state management of cash.
And it’s right here that her views intersect immediately with Bitcoin.
Machado: Bitcoin is a ‘lifeline’
In an interview first aired by Bitcoin Journal final 12 months, Machado spoke at size about Venezuela’s financial collapse and the function Bitcoin has performed in serving to residents survive it.
“The Venezuelan bolívar has misplaced 14 zeros,” she stated, recalling how inflation as soon as hit 1.7 million p.c. “This monetary repression — rooted in state-sponsored looting, theft, and unchecked cash printing — has destroyed our economic system regardless of our huge oil wealth.”
For a lot of Venezuelans, Bitcoin grew to become the one different. It has allowed households to retailer worth outdoors the collapsing bolívar, obtain remittances with out confiscation, and even fund their escapes from the nation.
Machado known as Bitcoin a “lifeline” for Venezuelans, a approach to bypass government-controlled change charges. She proposed together with Bitcoin in Venezuela’s future nationwide reserves because the nation seeks to get well its stolen wealth and rebuild from the dictatorship.
Machado additionally proposed together with Bitcoin in Venezuela’s future nationwide reserves as a part of the nation’s post-dictatorship restoration.
“We envision Bitcoin as a part of our nationwide reserves, serving to rebuild what the dictatorship stole,” she instructed Bitcoin Journal.
Machado’s emphasis on transparency echoes one in every of Bitcoin’s core rules — a public ledger that’s incorruptible by design. It’s an concept that resonates with freedom and justice.
