President Maduro Considers Reintroducing Cryptocurrencies in Venezuela

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has recently suggested that the country may return to a crypto-friendly path, despite the massive PDVSA-Crypto scandal that saw $20 billion in oil sales paid for in cryptocurrency go missing.

Maduro stressed that Venezuela must “return to the crypto path,” though he did not explicitly mention the controversial Petro, the national cryptocurrency tied to the country’s oil reserves. The Petro was introduced in 2018 to circumvent international sanctions but has had little success since then.

Maduro further stated that “bandits and thieves” had destroyed Venezuela’s previous crypto projects and suggested that the crypto sector has regained a place on his political agenda. He made these remarks during a meeting with leading bankers and stockbrokers, where he also discussed setting up a new system based on a basket of different currencies, including cryptocurrencies.

PDVSA crypto scandal

Maduro’s reference to “bandits and thieves” appears to point to the PDVSA-Crypto scandal, in which officials at the state oil company PDVSA sold oil and failed to report the payments, which amounted to as much as $20 billion in cryptocurrency and other currencies, to the national treasury.

This scandal led to the arrest of Joselit Ramirez, the former head of Sunacrip, the national crypto regulator, and Tareck El Aissami, the former president of PDVSA. Sunacrip has been in restructuring for over a year.

Maduro previously shut down all crypto projects in the country, including Petro, Sunacrip, and state-sponsored crypto mining initiatives, after exposing an alleged $21 billion plot aimed at embezzling billions of dollars in cryptocurrency used for international oil sales.

Future of Crypto in Venezuela

While the future of the Petro remains uncertain, it is notable that Maduro is once again emphasizing the use of cryptocurrency in Venezuela’s economic strategy.

This comes at a time when its allies in Moscow and Tehran are also considering crypto as a means of payment for international trade. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently gave the green light for the use of cryptocurrencies in cross-border transactions, and experts suggest that Iranian companies have been using crypto in their trading activities for years.

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