Venezuela's recent moves have taken stablecoins to a new level. The state oil company PdVSA is settling exports with USDT, with 80% of oil and gas revenue bypassing traditional banking systems and all transactions happening on-chain. U.S. sanctions are effectively rendered useless, instead pushing a privately issued stablecoin into a national-level financial tool.

What's more heartbreaking is that this is also changing the lives of ordinary people. The local currency has depreciated to worthless paper, so the common folk are simply using USDT—saving with it, cross-border transactions with it, and purchasing supplies with it. One coin, multiple uses; it’s both the government’s "sanction breakthrough" and the people's "financial lifeline."

Now, all the pressure falls on Tether and U.S. regulators. Every on-chain transaction can be traced, theoretically controllable, but in practice? A privately issued stablecoin has unknowingly become a key pawn on the geopolitical chessboard. Tether needs to be careful—this role brings both great achievements and unprecedented pressures. The collision of crypto finance and international politics is more thrilling than any novel.