Venezuela starts the pre-sale of its official cryptocurrency named ‘Petro’

On February 20th, Venezuela starts the pre-sale of its official cryptocurrency named ‘Petro’. According to officials, Initial Coin Offering for the petro cryptocurrency raised more than USD 700 millions.

Reportedly, once start trading, Petro will be backed by the price of one barrel of crude oil. it’s still not clear how will this work in practice. Venezuelan government previously disclosed that Petro would be build on a Ethereum blockchain platform but they abounded this idea announcing that token will be issued on NEM blockchain platform. Earlier in January when petro is announced, U.S. Department of Treasury issued a warning to the possible investors that this kind of investment can violate U.S sanction to the Venezuela. “Today is the day the Petro is born. We are on the world’s financial vanguard. Our response to great problems is great solutions and good will,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised launch event held on Tuesday, 20 February.