To help outmaneuver Venezuela’s economic disaster and the sanctions imposed by the US (and other nations), President Maduro tried to invent a new cryptocurrency called the ‘petro.’ The cryptocurrency was created to help support the country’s natural resources and that each token would be backed by a barrel of oil. Whether or not this is working to hep stabilize Venezuela, President Trump has decided to issue an executive order to ban the currency within the United States.
The executive order has banned all transactions from taking place in the US related to “any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018,” basically, the petro. Previously, Maduro said that around 100 million tokens would be released, combining to be worth around $6 billion.
Since the US has sanctions against Venezuela, it makes sense that this executive order was issued because Venezuela would effectively be using petro to circumvent the sanctions. Not only that, the government has also been cracking down on cryptocurrency crimes this year. Fraudsters and scammers are being caught and charged by regulators, but an overall effective plan still isn’t in place.
