“Today,
a cryptocurrency is being born that can take on Superman,” said
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
While
cryptocurrency and blockchain experts said Venezuela's new digital
currency, the "Petro", would not garner significant
investment, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on Tuesday
that the country had earned $735 million on the first day of
pre-sales.
“Today,
a cryptocurrency is being born that can take on Superman,” said
Maduro, using the comic character as a reference to the United
States, while giving an address on state television. He added: “For
big problems, (we have created a) big solution... We Venezuelans are
indomitable.”
Maduro
noted that the Petro could be used to conduct sales in tourism,
gasoline, and some oil transactions.
Venezuela's
Cryptocurrency Superintendent, Carlos Vargas, stated that the Petro
has already attracted investors from Qatar, Turkey and other parts of
the Middle East, though Europeans and Americans will also
participate.
The
cryptocurrency, which will be backed by the country's oil resources,
will bring in a new economic era in the nation. Maduro has stated
that the goal of the new cryptocurrency is to combat sanctions, the
“economic war,” waged by the U.S. government and its junior
partners against Venezuela, all the while advancing “on issues
of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome
the financial blockade.”
The
launch of the Petro was announced in December. It is regulated by the
Superintendence of Cryptocurrencies and Related Activities, as well
as the Blockchain Observatory.
Cryptocurrencies
typically are not backed by any government or central banks, nor are
they regulated. However, the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission
has been increasingly tracking digital currencies, classing some
tokens as securities, thus making them subject to oversight.
On this
point, Maduro said: "We have taken a giant step into the 21st
Century... We are on the world’s technological vanguard.”
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