Kike emphasizes that, with Bitcoin, people protect their private property from confiscation.
Calls to meet, study and give courses to demystify its use and accelerate adoption.
In Cuba, where past revolution scars still resonate, a new form of resistance is emerging. It does not descend from the mountains or wield rifles, but operates in the shadows of a decentralized network, with Bitcoin (BTC) as its empowerment tool.
In a country suffocated by state control, an unprecedented economic crisis and a hardened international embargo, This digital currency is not only a lifeguard, but a symbol of hope and autonomy.
With average salaries of 4,000 pesos per month (equivalent to about 10 dollars) and galloping inflation, the basic basket is an unattainable luxury for most Cubans. An egg cardboard or 1GB of the Internet, which costs $ 10, can consume an entire salary, according to residents.
Remittances, essential for many families, are restricted by international sanctions and Decree-Law 35which allows the government to monitor and limit an already expensive and unstable Internet access.
To this is added the recent memorandum signed By the president of the USA, Donald Trump, in July 2025, which hardens the embargo by prohibiting transactions with the Gaesa military conglomerate and reinforcing restrictions on tourist trips, aggravating the financial exclusion of the island.
In this context of economic oppression, Bitcoin emerges as a solution. This was explained by Kike, a Cuban bitcoiner who speaks under anonymity for security, during an exclusive interview with cryptooticies.
«Bitcoin is really a monetary revolution that goes from the bottom up. That allows the individual to take power, gain freedom and ensure their private property with cryptography ».
Kike, Cuba Bitcoiner.
The mission that Kike has been drawn up Educate your compatriots about a technology that promises to return the autonomy that the State denies them.
Kike and Catrya: Faces without a trace of digital resistance
Kike, co -founder of the 21 Bitcoin Academy community, is part of a silent crusade, in his country and in Latin America. This with the idea of spreading knowledge about pioneering digital currency.
Through groups at WhatsApp and Telegram, and In coffees that already accept BTC in HavanaHe, together with communities such as Cuba Bitcoin, fight misinformation and teach to use the digital currency.
«What we want is for people to live under the Bitcoin standard. They can, be more independent of the State, have a little more freedom. That can have a little more knowledge and prosper. That among all, little by little, there is a change in Latin America in general. With Bitcoin we know that we can achieve it ».
Kile, community co -founder 21 Bitcoin Academy.
Kike’s anonymity, as he learned from Satoshi Nakamoto, is a strategic need in a country where dissent, even economic, can have a high cost.
Catrya, another Cuban bitcoiner who no longer lives on the island, shares a similar history. His first contact with Bitcoin, at the end of 2017, was through a Ponzi scheme. “I didn’t know what it was, I just saw a way to earn Fíat money,” he said in The podcast Bitcoin generation.
Without access to mobile data and depending on third parties to buy Satoshis, Catrya lost money several times. However, curiosity led her to study Bitcoin during the 2020 pandemic.
“I discovered that with Bitcoin nobody tells me where to use my money. In Cuba, without access to Visa, Paypal or Mastercard, I saw that this technology broke those barriers,” he explained.
He also confessed to having learned that, in his opinion, Bitcoin is not a way to become rich, but “a way of becoming poor more slowly” in front of a Cuban weight in free fall.
In any case, acquiring Bitcoin in Cuba is an act of ingenuity. Without access to international exchanges, Cubans turn to the few markets available, many of them stalls of scams.
The solution came with tools such as LNP2Pbotwhich uses lightning network, as well as show, to perform safer exchanges. From these tools, the Cuba Bitcoin community was born, a 100% educational space that today graduates hundreds of Cubans in the use of this technology. There is also the Forte11 community and a circular economy is being created called BTC Island.
On the other hand, platforms such as QVAPAY AND BITREMENAS They allow you to receive remittances, raffling the blockade that left Western Union out of the island. According to a NBC News report of 2022, between 100,000 and 200 Cubans use digital assets. This, especially in Havana, where coffee shops and workshops already accept BTC.
“Bitcoin is also a passport to freedom”
Catrya said that “knows people who They have migrated to the US, carrying their wealth in Bitcoinexchanging it for local coins in Central America to survive. ”However, adoption is not exempt from challenges.
Many move away from Bitcoin due to price volatility, technical complexity for rookie users and the risk of fraud in P2P markets that require continuing education. The Internet, face and unstable connection, and the precarious power grid, marked by blackouts, add more obstacles.
However, others like Kike, do not stop in obstacles. In fact, he is passionate about Bitcoin’s mining, although this field faces significant barriers in Cuba due to constant power cuts.
“Mining at an industrial scale is unfeasible, but the ‘Lottery Miners’ of low consumption, fed by battery or solar panels, are a viable alternative,” explains Kike.
These teams, which They compete for rewards in the Bitcoin Network With minimal energy consumption, they adapt to the limitations of the island, demonstrating that innovation can even exceed the most adverse conditions.
For Kike and Catrya, Bitcoin transcends financial because for them it is a cultural revolution.
“In Latin America, and especially in Cuba, Bitcoin is vital because it introduces free market ideas that the educational system omits. Teaching about this technology is not just to show how to use it, but to open minds to concepts of economy and autonomy.”
Kike, Cuban bitcoiner.
Catrya, a graduate in biochemistry, He left a research work in Cuba, with a salary of 11 dollars a month to devote himself to Bitcoin.
Today, at 26, he lives in El Salvador and is a self -taught developer, contributing to open source projects such as LNP2P Bot and Monstro.
“Bitcoin allowed me to break the barriers that imprisoned me,” he says.
Kike, Catrya’s work and Bitcoiners communities face risks. Although Cuba legalized cryptocurrencies in 2021, its use is strictly regulated, and promoting a libertarian discourse can attract reprisals.
Trump’s sanctions, which reinforce the embargo and limit access to currencies, make Bitcoin even more crucial, but also highlight the need to overcome barriers such as the lack of technological education and poor infrastructure.
Despite this, Kike remains optimistic: “Cuba needs Bitcoin more than ever. It is our tool to dream beyond limits and build a future where power is in the hands of people.”
«We do not want to have to continue facing and infinitely facing this entire corrupt state system. We want to get rid of all these problems we see daily. Of all this that, after all, affects the people on foot and affect the workers, as well as the business owners ».
Kike, Cuban bitcoiner.
In a country where hope often looks like a luxury, Kike and Catrya show that Resistance can be silent but powerful. His fight is not only against an oppressive system, but for the right to dream. As Kike says, with a conviction that resonates throughout the region: Cuba needs Bitcoin more than ever.
