Venezuelan crypto exchange Criptolago has announced that it will launch a text message-based payment system that can process transactions in Venezuela’s oil-backed Petro (PTR) and other cryptocurrencies. The system may expose new segments of Venezuela’s population to cryptocurrencies amid the country’s ongoing hyperinflation crisis — with the value of the Venezuelan bolivar fluctuating by 1.58% in the past 24 hours and roughly 2,500% in 12 months. Criptolago unveils SMS-based crypto transfers In a tweet published on April 6, Criptolago stated that it developed the service in response to a call from the country’s president for financial companies to develop payment …

At the end of February, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed its Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program, which targets peer-to-peer and darknet markets for the illicit use of cryptocurrencies. Then, in a press conference one month later, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and 14 other top officials in the country. The charges include leveraging political offices, financial systems and cryptocurrencies for conducting and concealing a massive government-run drug-trafficking, narco-terrorism and corruption operation for over 20 years. This systemic corruption raided Venezuela of billions of dollars and economically wrecked the country, according to the U.S. prosecutors. …

Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and Venezuela’s sitting president, has announced a campaign to support his country’s medical staff amid the coronavirus pandemic by airdropping one Petro to each doctor. The ‘Doctors of the Homeland’ initiative will see each Venezuelan doctor air-dropped one of the administration’s oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency tokens, as per an April 2 tweet published by a government official. Venezuela to issue Petro bonus to doctors The tokens will be distributed using Venezuela’s ‘Patria System’ — a platform launched by the government to bypass the nation’s failing banking system and issue bonuses and subsidies using the cryptographic …

Several Venezuelan leaders recently came under fire for alleged criminal acts, although, contrary to initial impressions, the situation did not directly involve cryptocurrency usage. “Maduro and his co-defendants are not alleged to have been involved with crypto, directly,” Ashok Ayyar, counsel at Experience Legal, told Cointelegraph. A number of Venezuelan officials, including former president Maduro, faced a slew of charges from U.S. governing bodies, according to a March 26 statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ). Despite the press release announcing the charges touting the Homeland Security Investigations’ ability to track cryptocurrency transactions, a close examination of the DoJ’s …

Over 30 years ago, in a January 1988 cover story emblazoned with a phoenix hovering over a paper-money inferno, The Economist offered this semi-prophetic vision of currency: “Thirty years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let’s say, the phoenix. The phoenix will be favoured by companies and shoppers because it will be more convenient than today’s national currencies, which by then will seem a quaint cause …

Venezuelans are reportedly selling the state-launched Petro (PTR) cryptocurrency that was airdropped to them recently. Though the government claims to have fixed the value of one PTR at $60, the market price on LocalBitcoins is reported to be only half of that. According to a Reddit thread, Venezuelans are turning to LocalBitcoins to sell their airdropped Petro amid disastrous economic conditions. This follows an airdrop to a claimed 6 million people in December. The Reddit user claims that the government initially allowed the usage of Petro to buy products through a biometric app, but it soon shut it down as …

Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, announced on Friday the opening of a new crypto-run casino in a battered country where betting halls have all but gone extinct. A casino for relief Maduro said Ávila National Park’s Hotel Humboldt will soon be home to an international casino that will operate with Petro (PTR), Venezuela’s state cryptocurrency, and that proceeds will fund the country’s public health and education sectors. The announcement comes less than a decade after Maduro’s mentor, former president Hugo Chavez, ordered the closure of all betting places as harbors of prostitution, drugs and crime. Since 2011, as the then-relatively-prosperous …

Venezuela will soon sell oil from reserves of a state-run oil and gas company for its national oil-pegged cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR). Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has signed a decree to sell 4.5 million barrels of oil from the certified 30 million-barrel reserve maintained by Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned company officially announced on Jan. 14. According to PDVSA, Maduro announced the news in a speech before the Constituent National Assembly — an assembly elected in 2017 to draft a new constitution for Venezuela. Oil sales to be an exploration mechanism Once the initial sale of 4.5 million barrels …

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that this week the government will pay half a Petro to Venezuelan retirees and public workers as Christmas bonus. With a total of 4,500,000 retirees and 3,500,000 public workers, Maduro said in a speech on Dec. 15 that he expects to deliver half a Petro to more than 8 million Venezuelans this week. This follows up on remarks Maduro made in mid-November. With a fixed value of $60 established by the Venezuelan government, the average Petro bonus that each Venezuelan will receive will be equivalent to $30. It is estimated that the government will give …

Venezuela plans to back its national oil-pegged cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR), with 30 million barrels of crude oil. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that the oil inventories are sitting in the country’s storage tanks and are ready for immediate commercialization to serve as a “liquid, physical, material backing” for the Petro. The president announced the news on Nov. 20 on state television, according to a Reuters report. In the announcement, Maduro called the Petro a “sovereign Venezuelan crypto asset.” Venezuela initially planned to back the Petro with 5 billion barrels of oil While Maduro has not provided any details on …

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro announced that the Christmas bonus of the country’s retirees and pensioners will be paid to them in the national cryptocurrency Petro. The Twitter profile of local news outlet Venepress reported on Maduro’s remarks on Nov. 17. This particular instance is not the first time that Venezuela pushes Petro into the wallets of pensioners so far. As Cointelegraph reported in December last year, Venezuela back then has automatically converted pensioners’ bonuses for the year into Petro. Petro, the future for Venezuelan economy? The crypto asset in question has been first launched for a pre-sale in February last …

Last week, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, appeared on national television approaching a Trezor-branded stall at a local technological fair. He seemed perplexed as to what exactly a hardware cryptocurrency wallet is supposed to do. Still, Maduro, device in hand, turned to the camera and proclaimed that cryptocurrencies — his country’s own digital currency, Petro, in particular — are important for Venezuela’s economic future. Trezor officials soon clarified that they had nothing to do with the stunt, and that the company had no official resellers in the country. The event seemed to accurately portray the precarious situation of cryptocurrencies …