Venezuela to roll out crypto-funded youth bank

Thus, the country will set up a bank for students and young people that will begin its operations with 20 million Petros, CoinDesk cited Venezuelan news source Telesur. Speaking during a youth ceremony in the state of Aragua on May 3, 2018, the president said that close to USD 1.2 billion-worth of the cryptocurrency would be given to the new institution to get it up and running.

During his speech, he also said that every university should have a mining farm to produce cryptocurrencies in order to strengthen the economy of Venezuela.

Launched in February 2018, the Petro is a national oil-backed cryptocurrency developed by the government of Venezuela under the direct orders of the president. The move has been widely condemned as a way to avoid US-led sanctions against the Latin American country. Soon after the launch of the Petro pre-sale, the president further announced that he plans a second cryptocurrency to be backed by the nations gold reserves.