Venezuela’s Maduro Compels All Banks to Allow Trade in El Petro Cryptocurrency

Venezuela’s Maduro government recently took another step towards promoting its state-issued cryptocurrency, El Petro. The Venezuelan government asked Banco de Venezuela and all of its branches to allow citizens to buy and sell El Petro, the state-issued cryptocurrency that Maduro has been pushing aggressively.

Venezuela has been facing tremendous pressure from strict US sanctions and trade embargo. As a result, Venezuela has almost come down on its knees. Not only foreign investors but domestic investors as well have lost their trust in the current Maduro government. Considering all sorts of international scenarios, the Maduro government has finally turned to crypto with El Petro and promoted its adoption to the edge.

Previously, the government had opened various point of sale kiosk for crypto payments and even a service that allows foreign investors to buy the Petro digital coin to increase the inflow of foreign currency. In an effort to promote Petro, they had once also offered India crude oil with half of the market price if India will pay in Petro .

“I hereby order that every branch of Banco de Venezuela opens exchange desks so that everyone can transact with El Petro and start using it,” said Maduro. “This is the new world where we can lead by example. We can do this from Venezuela. The world is looking at us.” Talking about the sanctions imposed by the US government and trade embargo on the country he said that “cryptocurrencies must be democratized against a backdrop of economic sanctions, block, and financial persecution.”

Maduro didn’t stop at one of the country’s leading public sectors, banking, but he also ordered all the private sector’s banks in the nation to adopt the state-backed El Petro and allow customers to buy and sell it from their branches. This latest attempt comes after hearing about its all-weather ally Cuba. The Cuban government has recently announced that it has been studying cryptocurrency and its potential to develop the crippled economy of the country.

Not Maduro’s First Attempt to Push the Petro Cryptocurrency

Maduro has already previously focused on adopting El Petro several times but he failed miserably. In September last year, appeared on state television to announce that El Petro would be used in international transactions starting from October 1. However, the plan couldn’t take off and failed.

Maduro believes that cryptocurrencies can save the struggling economy of Venezuela from savage hyperinflation and trade embargo by the US government, which left the country handicapped as the imports of petroleum products went to the bottom. He believes El Petro could be the second official currency of Venezuela.