Venezuela to Launch Youth Bank Funded By Its Own Digital Currency ‘Petro’

Earlier this year, Venezuela - a country ridden with huge economic debts announced the launch of its own state-owned cryptocurrency called Petro. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that Petro would help the country to circumvent the economic sanctions and will be backed by the country’s own natural resources like oil, gas, and diamond.

After the launch, President Nicolas claimed to have raised a whopping $5 billion funds through the token sale of Petro. Now, in a further push to the cryptocurrency for wider acceptance among the investors, Maduro announced the launch of a Petro-funded youth bank last Thursday.

Maduro made this announcement during a youth rally in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, reported a local new publication Telesur. Mauro has promised to fund the Youth Bank with 20 million Petro digital tokens which according to him are worth $1.2 billion.

The President has provided absolutely scant details of the functioning and operation of the Youth Bank other than saying that it will support “productive initiatives” for the youth of the country.

Although President Maduro has been going all praises for Petro, the country’s opposition-controlled legislature has itself criticized the digital currency and said that using the Petro, Maduro is just trying to distract attention from the country’s ailing economic condition.

As Petro was created with the intent to circumvent the U.S sanctions, U.S President Donald Trump signed an executive order putting an immediate ban on Petro from trading on the U.S crypto exchanges and also barred the citizens from buying the cryptocurrency.

Venezuela, on the other hand, has been making several deals with other countries to push the circulation of Petro. Last month, the country was holding potential talks with Russia to engage in a trade deal for auto parts in for which the payment will be made through the recently launched Petro coin.

Last week, the country also offered India an offer of giving 30 percent discount on crude oil purchases if it pays for all those transactions using the Petro. President Maduro is claiming that the state-owned cryptocurrency will be replacing the hyper inflated Bolivar by 2020. The President is also planning for the launch of another sister currency Petro gold.

Last month, Maduro also encouraged its citizens for developing crypto mining farms across the country. The government has already set a crypto mining farm which the President hopes will attract around 1 million people.