The Venezuelan government has blocked access to cryptocurrency exchange Binance, social media platform X and other online services amid unrest over election results. This decision of the government increased the effects of political and economic crises in the country.

On August 9, local anti-censorship organization VE sin Filtro announced that Binance was experiencing a DNS-level blocking, affecting the normal operation of the exchange’s website and mobile application.

This blocking affected not only Binance but also many other websites in Venezuela. Various industry websites, including social media platforms, faced access restrictions.

In its post on August 10, Binance’s Latin America-based X account stated to its users that their funds were safe and that they were working to resolve the situation in the best and fastest way. The stock exchange stated that they are monitoring the developments closely and taking the necessary steps to address the concerns of their users.

Binance’s peer-to-peer (P2P) service allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly for cash and is very popular in Venezuela.

Due to high inflation in the country, Venezuelans prefer this service to escape the bolívar currency and acquire valuable assets. However, government restrictions restricted the accessibility of this service.

Aside from the hurdles, VE sin Filtro suggested Venezuelans bypass these blockages using a virtual private network (VPN). Using a VPN can help users bypass blocks on the internet and gain access despite censorship.

The Binance block on August 9 took place immediately after the statements made by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on August 8. Maduro ordered telecom regulator Conatel to ban social media platform X in the country for 10 days.

This ban is considered as part of the political tensions in the country and restrictions on access to the media. There was a recent public dispute between Maduro and X owner Elon Musk; Both offered a fight to each other.

On the same day, encrypted messaging app Signal was also blocked. Internet monitoring project NetBlocks noted that the Signal app can remain functional when the “censorship bypass” setting is enabled. This blocking took place at a time when there were large-scale protests across the country.

Following the presidential elections on July 28, Maduro and his rival Edmundo González claimed that the election results were in their favor.

The election authority under the control of the Venezuelan government declared Maduro the winner with more than 51% of the votes, but no detailed vote counting was done. González, on the other hand, claimed that the voting machine printouts collected by his party proved that he received approximately 70% of the votes.

The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and many South American countries did not recognize Maduro’s claim to the presidency and demanded detailed vote counts. This situation has further complicated Venezuela’s relations with the international community.