Beyond the Banks: How Bitcoin is helping businesses in emerging markets thrive

For any of us used to the comforting hum of a high-street bank, where the pens are always taped to the counter, it is too easy to take financial infrastructure for granted. Payments are made, transfers arrive, and despite all the griping about charges and interest rates, money—in general—finds its way to where it's meant to. But banking is a relatively abstract concept in most of the globe. There is an institution that does exist, to be sure, but too commonly in some unreliable, inaccessible, or, most frustratingly, expensive form.

In countries where economic instability is less a short-term aberration and more a daily staple, small business owners are fighting a battle just to stay afloat. Currencies collapse overnight, inflation runs rampant, and banks—if they even exist—have a tendency to impose restrictions, freeze accounts, or simply disappear into thin air. In these areas, businesses don't need innovative new fintech structures or a bump to "premium" banking—they need an alternative. And increasingly, that alternative is Bitcoin.

At first glance, the idea of running a small business using a risky online currency seems like exchanging one uncertainty for another. But to businesspeople in emerging markets, Bitcoin offers something banks do not: liberty. It is exchanged directly between buyer and seller, without third-party oversight dictating what is and is not allowed. And for businesses operating in economies in which inflation renders even the most careful budgeting a fool's errand, Bitcoin guarantees stability—at least stability relative to the national currency. Witness a local currency lose 40% of its value over the course of a year to put a few price gyrations in the Bitcoin price into perspective.

A way around the system

For most businesses, the real allure of Bitcoin is not stability—it's access. In some countries, receiving and sending international payments requires a slow, bureaucratic dance with middlemen, checks for compliance, and arcane transaction charges that somehow expand in size the farther the money has to travel. An Argentine small business trying to bring in inventory from Europe might lose as much as 10–20% of its money to fees alone, without including the weeks of waiting while banks tediously scrutinise every step of the way. Bitcoin, however, doesn't ask. It places no paperwork or holdbacks. It simply goes, sometimes in a matter of minutes, with costs that make banks seem downright avaricious by comparison.

Companies in countries like Venezuela, Nigeria, and Lebanon—where inflation has reached outright surreal heights at times—are therefore looking to Bitcoin. It allows them to trade and exchange, to maintain value in something other than a rapidly depleting local currency, and to skirt financial institutions that, at best, offer meagre help, and at worst, actively work against them. In Nigeria, where government controls on foreign exchange have made it increasingly difficult for businesses to conduct business, Bitcoin has quietly appeared as the go-around option. It is accepted by importers for paying suppliers. Freelancers employ it in order to be paid by foreign countries. Owners of small shops employ it to convert their gains into something that will not lose half its value tomorrow.

The rise of bitcoin business

And, of course, the actual sign that Bitcoin is being woven into the business culture of these economies is the fact that businesses aren't merely employing it in the background—they're starting to accept it directly from customers. In cities like Buenos Aires, entire neighbourhoods are now lined with cafes, bars, and shops openly displaying Bitcoin payment symbols alongside the standard credit card symbols. It's not a publicity stunt, nor a symbolic gesture towards being hip—it's a practical response to a broken system. In Lebanon, where bank restrictions have made it virtually impossible for individuals to access their own funds, restaurants and small businesses are beginning to turn to Bitcoin as a means of being certain they do receive payment.

There's also the question of remittances—one of the largest sources of income for many families in the developing world. Historically, remitting money overseas involves trading with firms specialised in their exorbitant fees for the service. Bitcoin, especially with the Lightning Network, makes it possible for workers overseas to remit money home in real time, with fees so minuscule they're almost negligible. It's difficult to overestimate the importance of this. When survival depends on foreign money coming in, each unnecessary fee is an outrage, a desperation tax. Bitcoin negates that kind of taxation so that one will receive exactly what one has been sent and not what's available after the banking system has had its cut.

The inevitable backlash

Naturally enough, those who work in financial systems may not especially be fond of being bypassed. Central banks and governments haven't all been pleased to witness Bitcoin trade circulating within their economies, and a lot of them have tried to crush it. Bans, prohibitions, and warnings of "financial instability" have been offered generously, but the reality is, it is sort of hard to suppress Bitcoin like it is hard to suppress humans using the internet—something that one can hypothetically think of doing, but practically more trouble than it's worth.

In a few cases, governments have even been forced into an uneasy union with Bitcoin. El Salvador went all in, adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021—a step met with widespread scepticism, a few technical hiccups, and no small amount of global finger-wagging. But whether or not state-mandated adoption is an emerging trend, the truth is that Bitcoin is just too handy to be forced out of existence. It's already become a part of the economies in which financial instability is the norm, and short of an unlikely retreat to perfect economic stability, it's hard to see that changing.

A quiet revolution

For emerging market businesses, Bitcoin is no speculative tool or technological toy—it's a survival mechanism. It's a way to keep doors open, pay vendors, receive money from abroad, and operate without hindrance. It's banking without banks, financial plumbing without the bureaucracy. And while institutions and governments can continue to resist it, the raw fact is that Bitcoin is plugging holes they haven't been able to.

The global financial universe has always been tilted in the direction of those with access—those with stable currencies, good banks, and financial systems that work for them. But where those institutions do not exist, people have created their own. It's not great, and it's not risk-free by any means, but for those firms using Bitcoin to survive and prosper, it's not a question of ideology or investment philosophy—it's a question of keeping them in business tomorrow. And in that sense, perhaps the greatest contribution of Bitcoin is not in the boardrooms of technology financiers, but in the market stalls and shopfronts of the world's longest-lived entrepreneurs.