Venezuela’s national cryptocurrency is officially up for sale

The bleeding Venezuelan economy is pinning its hopes on cryptocurrency.

On Tuesday, the Venezuelan government launched a pre-sale of “Petro,” a new cryptocurrency backed by the country’s oil reserves. The aim of Petro is to raise foreign investment in the socioeconomically struggling Venezuelan economy, which has resulted in rampant inflation, food and medicine shortage, dried up cash reserves, billions in debt, and mass protest. Venezuela is calling the Petro the world’s “first state-issued cryptoasset.”

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