Petro Cryptocurrency is Not Legal According To Venezuela's Congress

It appears that the petro, the national cryptocurrency that Venezuela plans on releasing, is now dealing with a seatback. The country's president announced that the petro will be released soon, but now Venezuela' Congress claimed that the cryptocurrency actually is illegal.

The fast stance of the Congress against the cryptocurrency might also be explained by the fact that it is actually run by the opposition of the country's president, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro was very involved in the release of the petro, personally giving updates on the status of the work to release the national cryptocurrency. Maduro was also the one who revealed that the petro will be backed by the rich oil reserves of the country.

Venezuela's president first announced the release of the Petro in December

Maduro first revealed the creation of the petro back in December, 2017. At that time, Maduro also said that the new cryptocurrency will be backed by oil reserves, but also by other commodities such as gold and diamonds. Maduro also explained then that the petro will not be useful only for facilitating payments, but it may actually help the country combat sanctions imposed by the US.

According to Maduro, this will help the country's economy on the long term. Maduro then went to explain that a total of 100 million petros will be created. He also said that each petro will be backed by one barrel of oil. Furthermore, Maduro also said that a meeting has been scheduled with miners for January 14.

Well, things might not go as planned now, as the parliament claimed that issuing the petro would actually violate constitutional requirements.

These requirements mandate the parliament with the possibility to approve any borrowing against the oil reserves of Venezuela. Reuters reported that some parliament members actually said that the national cryptocurrency was in fact an attempt to sell the country's oil.