Venezuela decided to finance foreign trade operations in crypto.
President Nicolas Maduro said that, first of all, Caracas wants to expand the use of the national crypto Petro.
In addition to Petro, the government can use other digital currencies if necessary. The corresponding bill has already been developed in the Cabinet of the Latin American state.
Maduro said: "The bill should encourage the use of Petro and other cryptocurrencies in domestic and foreign trade."
Trending: Smart Contracts Audits Startup Hexens Closed $4.2 M Seed Funding
With the help of such an instrument, Caracas hopes to bypass the American sanctions, which are putting pressure on the Venezuelan financial sector. The document will be adopted after its approval by the Constitutional Assembly, convened in 2017 on the initiative of Nicolas Maduro.
As a reminder, the placement of Petro tokens began in February 2018. Venezuelan authorities immediately announced that the crypto would be backed by oil produced in the country. The price of one coin is tied to the value of a barrel of "black gold".
In the spring of this year, it became known that the Venezuelan government began lending to farmers in Petro. One of the agricultural companies, for example, received from the authorities a batch of tokens totaling more than $ 31 million.