Venezuela Launches the ‘Petro’: Oil & Gold Backed Cryptocurrency to Fight US Financial Blockade

My question is, why is the US blockading Venezuela? What did Venezuela ever do to the US? What's with this long trail of back-biting between these two countries??

Venezuela Launches the ‘Petro’: Oil & Gold Backed Cryptocurrency to Fight US Financial Blockade

Excerpt:

Caracas, Venezuela – With Bitcoin soaring to new record high daily, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday that in an effort to bypass U.S.-led financial sanctions Venezuela would launch a digital cryptocurrency backed by oil.

“Venezuela is announcing the creation of its own cryptocurrency. It will be called The Petro. It will allow us to innovate towards new forms of international finance for the economic and social development of the country,” Maduro said Sunday in a statement on state broadcaster VTV, as cited by El Periodico.

Although few details were released about the planned cryptocurrency, Maduro noted that the Petro will be backed by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves, according to Reuters. Venezuela boasts the largest proven reserves of crude oil in the world but has struggled against the plunge in oil prices which began in 2014.

Amid ongoing economic sanctions, spearheaded by the United States, Venezuela’s national currency, the Bolivar, has lost approximately 57 percent of its value in the last four weeks alone, according to Reuters.

“The 21st century has arrived!” said Maduro, noting that the move would allow Venezuela to “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.”

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