Venezuelan authorities have declared the experiment with the launch of the state cryptocurrency Petro, backed by oil, unsuccessful. The project will cease to exist on January 15, after 6 years of work.
The Petro (PTR) or El Petro cryptocurrency appeared in 2018 and was supposed to help Venezuela circumvent US sanctions. Unfortunately, the coin never became widespread. Cryptocurrency can still be traded on the only platform – the state website Venezuelan Patria, which does not even support two-factor authentication, not to mention more modern account protection systems.
The launch of the Petro coin took place shortly after a large-scale fall in the value of the national currency, the bolivar.. Even then, Venezuelans turned to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to save their savings. According to the plan of the government led by Nicolas Maduro, the state cryptocurrency will be backed by oil, which Venezuela is rich in, and will reduce the outflow of funds from the economy. And in the future, as expected, El Petro will be used for payments when purchasing oil.
Note that new functions in the Petro cryptocurrency appeared until 2020, but the coin was never traded on any foreign exchanges, despite the efforts of Maduro. However, the government never accepted El Petro as legal tender in the country, which put an end to its widespread everyday use among the population. However, it could be used to pay taxes.