It’s official! Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, is already available for purchase (for fiat currency or other digital tokens,) according to a tweet from the Economy Department of the country on October 29th.
The tweet was published along with an infographic, explaining that Petro is now eligible for purchase via six crypto exchanges that have received governmental authorization, or directly from the State through the Treasury, using the official website of the Petro.
Six Exchanges Will Host Petro
Bancar, Cave Blockchain, Amberes Coin, Afx Trade, Criptolago, and Cryptia are the six platforms in which the Petro will be available in addition to the official page of the digital asset. They received authorization from the Venezuelan authorities on October 16th. None of them are currently in the top 100 of crypto exchanges, according to the specialized site Coin Market Cap.
People holding fiat currency, specifically Yuan, US Dollars, and Euros, will be able to purchase the Petro coin. Investors can also make use of other cryptocurrencies to acquire Petro, but everyone needs to be registered in the system and pass the validation process indicated on the site of Petro.
Petro can be bought with Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Dash (DASH,) according to the information published on the official Twitter account of Petro this week. It is noteworthy, however, that the coin is available only for Bitcoin and Litecoin as of now.
Joselit Ramirez is the man assigned by President Nicolas Maduro and the rest of Venezuelan officials to manage customers’ service issues of Petro. He will act as the superintendent of cryptoassets and related activities.
A Week Earlier
Maduro made public several weeks ago that November 5th would be the date in which the public sale of Petro would start, almost a year after he first talked about the creation of a state-backed digital token. However, the process started a week earlier than anticipated.
The president explained at the time that Petro would be available on six cryptocurrency exchanges, although he refused to identify them by name. The Petro wallet was also launched on that same day on the Google Play Store, but it was soon deleted.
Although we have more information about Petro now and the crypto exchanges that will serve as trade platforms for the Venezuelan oil-related asset, uncertainty remains about the coin’s ability to be sustainable. The country economy is still struggling with high inflation rates just over two months removed from the transition from the Bolivar Fuerte to the Bolivar Soberano.
According to Venezuelan news site El Universal, the Petro sales to individual people got off to a slow start, which Ramirez attributed to people’s “natural resistance to changes.”
Ramirez explained to the publication that the Venezuelan government has a plan to attack the so-called “unwillingness to change,” saying that authorities are working in establishing an ecosystem integrated by businesses, public and private institutions, airlines, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, and other sectors where the use of crypto assets will be a common occurrence.”
“The world’s economic future is on the hands of cryptocurrencies, and now Venezuela is part of this future,” according to the government’s news hub AVN.
By Andres Chavez
