Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has ordered one of the country’s largest banks, Banco de Venezuela, to allow their customers to access the controversial cryptocurrency “petro”.
This according to a tweet from the Venezuelan Ministry of Finance.
“I give the express order for transaction counters for the petro to be opened in all Bank of Venezuela agencies”, says the president, according to Coindesk.
Forcing institutions to use the petro
Venezuela is a country in deep economic crisis. The petro, which reporetdly is backed by, among other things, the country’s oil reserves and state-owned companies, was launched at the beginning of last year by president Maduro to sidestep economic sanctions.
Since then, Maduro has ordered banks to start using the cryptocurrency. This move is therefore considered to be one in the line of attempts by the president to force institutions in the country to increase the use of the petro, Coindesk reports.
