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LatinNews Daily - 22 March 2018

In brief: Venezuela

Venezuela: Venezuela’s higher education, science & technology minister, Hugbel Roa, has formally launched of the initial public offering (IPO) of the government’s new official cryptocurrency, the ‘Petro’. First announced by President Nicolás Maduro back in December 2017, the Petro is supposed to be backed by Venezuela’s oil reserves, with each Petro unit being equivalent to one barrel of crude oil. The Maduro government has said that the initiative will allow it to circumvent the economic sanctions imposed on it by the US government by allowing interested foreign investors to freely purchase the Petro. However, the success of the initiative is under question amid concerns over the validity of the Petro. In addition, following the launch of the cryptocurrency’s initial pre-sale last month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order forbidding US nationals from using the Petro or any other digital currency issued by the Venezuelan government. Yet yesterday Roa said that following the conclusion of the month-long Petro pre-sale period, in which some US$5bn in purchase orders were received, the government will now start selling Petro units to bidders.

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