President Trump Puts a Pan U.S. Ban on the Purchase of Venezuela’s Petro Cryptocurrency
It looks like U.S President Donald Trump will leave no stone unturned to corner the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolas Maduro. On Monday, the U.S President issued an order that puts a ban across the country and prohibits U.S citizens from buying Venezuela’s Petro cryptocurrency.
The executive order also prohibits all the digital currency transactions in the U.S that can directly or indirectly benefit the Venezuelan government. The order bans "all transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order."
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin read out the order wherein Trump has described Petro an "attempt to circumvent US sanctions”. Mnuchin said “President Maduro decimated the Venezuelan economy and spurred a humanitarian crisis. Instead of correcting course to avoid further catastrophe, the Maduro regime is attempting to circumvent sanctions through the Petro digital currency – a ploy that Venezuela’s democratically-elected National Assembly has denounced and Treasury has cautioned U.S. persons to avoid.”
He further added that the U.S ban is aimed at "restoring Venezuelan democracy, combating the kleptocracy of the Maduro regime, and responding to the humanitarian crisis caused by Maduro's economic policy”.
Earlier this year, Maduro announced the launch of state-owned cryptocurrency in order to protect the country’s failing economy wherein inflation has shot up to 13,000 percent in just last one year. By launching its own cryptocurrency ‘Petro’, Maduro’s government was planning to increase foreign reserves through the means of a digital token. Many critics regarded this move as a cash levy in order to pay off the country’s $150 bn foreign debts.
The Venezuelan government responded to U.S ban by calling it a “gross meddling” which is equivalent to “new imperial aggression” against the country “financial economic system”.
Venezuela further stated that it will continue with its "sovereign decision to continue promoting Blockchain technology and make the Petro one of the most solid and reliable cryptocurrencies in the world”.
This might come as a big blow to a country who was figuring out ways to overcome its economic crisis and looking forward to mending things by the use of digital currency.