In 2016, the governments of India and Venezuela decided to demonetize the highest denomination banknotes in their economies. Both decisions involved the loss of millions of banknotes and funds to reduce the risks faced by the two countries in the face of the generalization of illegal economic activities, but, as a radical measure, demonetization conditioned the decisions of economic agents. This article aims to perform a comparative analysis of the demonetization measures implemented in India and Venezuela. For this purpose, the origin of the measure in both countries, the objectives set by the government and the results obtained were compared. The analysis made it possible to identify the differences and similarities of this type of government intervention.