Venezuelas petro cryptocurrency faces market scepticism from the US

This statement could dent investor appetite for the soon-to-be-launched token. At the beginning of January 2018, Venezuela’s officials announced the launch of a national cryptocurrency called Petro as a solution to fix the current economic state. Moreover, the Venezuelan president said his government will soon issue 100 million petros, backed by an equivalent number of barrels of oil, partly to get around the US sanctions.

Those sanctions prohibit the purchase of newly issued Venezuelan debt, which has left the Venezuelan president unable to refinance the country’s crippling debt burden and led Socialist Party officials to seek new forms of raising hard currency. US banks have grown more cautious about operations involving Venezuela since Washington imposed sanctions, exposing them to legal and reputational risks, finance industry sources said.

Nevertheless, Venezuela’s government has not provided any description of whether or how investors could collect the oil backing petro holdings.