Venezuela to Create a Cryptocurrency Amid Bolivar's Free Fall
- Maduro says cryptocurrency to be known as the ‘petrocurrency’
- To be backed by reserves in oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds
Greylock's Humes: Cryptocurrency an Option for Venezuela
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Venezuela’s currency is in free fall. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are going precisely the other direction. And there, President Nicolas Maduro sees a way out of his country’s economic ills.
On his Sunday television show, Maduro announced the nation would create its own “petrocurrency,” backed by reserves in oil, gas, gold and diamonds. It will enable Venezuela “to advance in monetary sovereignty, carry out its financial transactions to overcome the financial blockade,” Maduro said.