Venezuela has announced that petrol stations across the nation will sell gasoline at a reduced price in exchange for the country’s state-issued, oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro. However, the announcement comes alongside the removal of local petrol subsidies that will see the price of gasoline spiking from close to nothing to $0.02 per liter. Venezuela introduces new petrol regime Amid acute petrol shortages, June 1 saw Venezuela remove subsidies on the price of gasoline. The new petrol regime will see Venezuelan car-owners allotted 120 liters per month at roughly $0.02 — essentially allowing motorists two full tanks worth of petrol for …

Despite once ranking as the fourth-most popular app in Venezuela, pioneering crypto wallet provider BRD, formerly BreadWallet, attributes its success in the country to local demand for crypto assets. Speaking with Cointelegraph on the topic of BRD’s success in Venezuela, CEO Adam Traidman stated that local demand for crypto assets has been the principal driver of the app’s popularity in the country. “In all honesty, I would love to be able to tell you it was a result of our brilliant marketing team and great advertising strategies and all that — it was none of those things,” he said. “At …

On May 5, Venezuela’s government announced that its controversial oil-backed cryptocurrency, El Petro, would go offline for maintenance until May 10. However, observers have since identified that the official Petro block explorer now lists May 5, 2020, as the date that its genesis block was mined. Other block explorers record Oct.13, 2018, as the date for Petro’s genesis block — suggesting that there is more than one Petro chain currently in existence. Petro suspected of quietly forking After the maintenance was completed, the National Superintendency of Cryptoassets announced it had completed major infrastructure upgrades necessitating that PetroApp users update their …

Over 20,000 shops and enterprises in Venezuela will reportedly start accepting crypto by June 1. This news was made available as part of an effort to drive crypto adoption in the hyperinflation-stricken country. Earlier today, Panama-based cryptocurrency merchant-gateway startup Cryptobuyer announced a partnership with Venezuelan company Mega Soft, which processes payments for thousands of local businesses via its platform called “Merchant Server.” The platform will now accept Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Tether (USDT) and dozens of other cryptocurrencies along with fiat, thereby adopting the technology on a national scale. Merchants that are paid with cryptocurrencies will …

Amid declining global volume, Localbitcoins.com continues to comprise a hub for Latin American peer-to-peer (P2P) trade — with Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela posting record volume over recent weeks according to Coin.dance. This past week saw Localbitcoins trade between Bitcoin (BTC) and the Mexican peso spike by 71%. As such, the week of April 25 saw roughly $430,000 worth of BTC change hands in Mexico — comprising the fourth-strongest weekly trade activity on record. Latin markets post record volumes during April Argentinian P2P trade rallied to post a new record of more than $710,000 in weekly volume during the week of …

Long-time Venezuelan actor and singer, Fernando Carrillo, has announced his retirement from acting. He has decided instead to venture into the crypto business. Starting May 1, Carrillo will become the CEO of Fight to Fame, though his role only extends to Mexico and the Latin American region. According to an article published on April 29 by the Mexican newspaper, El Universal, Carrillo will lead the Singapore-based crypto firm founded by Morgan Shi. This company is known for issuing the FF Token. Actor sees Blockchain as the “future” Fernando, who is known for serial dramas such as “Siempre te amaré” and …

Colombian-based cross-border remittance start-up Valiu has launched Bitcoin-backed synthetic U.S. dollars as a means for Venezuelans to access stable assets and bypass the hyperinflation plaguing their national economy. It’s still in Alpha, but Valiu has partnered with Latin America food delivery app Rappi, which could offer a large user base to help with adoption when it’s rolled out in full later this year. Synthetic USD On April 23, Valiu chief executive Simon Chamorro tweeted that the firm’s ‘cryptodollar’ has launched in alpha: “After 4 months of 80+ hour work weeks, 500k+ lines of clean code written across 4 engineers, shifting …

On April 16, major cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, announced that they are listing the Venezuelan Bolívar (VES) in their peer-to-peer trading platform against BTC, USDT, ETH, BNB, BUSD, and EOS, with no fees attached. Exchange customers can now search for local P2P merchants who have stable cryptocurrency sources and trade them for VES. According to Binance, there are no security deposits and zero transaction fees. In recent years, Venezuela has dealt with numerous economic and political crises. These have involved measures taken by the government to control the circulation of foreign currencies in the country. As a currency, the Bolívar has …

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 …

These are perilous times, and it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that the United States Federal Reserve is doing its part to alleviate the suffering — which began with the coronavirus pandemic and has spread to the global economy. It’s printing more money. “There is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve,” Neel Kashkari, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told Scott Pelley of CBS on March 22, adding: “We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there is enough cash in the financial system.” The U.S. Federal Reserve itself reinforced that message …