Maduro makes efforts to fund Venezuela's economy in Petro

• President Nicolás Maduro plans to initiate several government funds denominated in Petros.
• The administrative division of each state will be granted additional resources in Petros.

The Venezuelan government is making efforts to fund the country’s economy via the state-backed cryptocurrency, Petro. President Nicolás Maduro announced during a state broadcast that he will initiate several government funds denominated in Petros. It is a mean to encourage economic development and end its dependence on the US Dollar. The administrative division of each state will be granted additional resources in Petros. Maduro said:

I am assigning 1 million bimonthly Petros as of November to all the states and the protectorates—through the corporations, we are going to create—as an investment modality for their free use in the attention of their priorities. In concrete terms, this means, my compatriots, that we are assigning between 1,354,000 euros and 3,249,600 euros to governors and protectorates.

Maduro claimed that the Venezuelan government holds a significant amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum as part of its international reserves. He also declared his plans to create a mechanism to pay debts and charge for services using crypto to avoid US sanctions.

During his speech, Maduro announced that he would design several other Petro funds for agricultural and industrial development. He also stated that Petro would be used to obtain raw materials that cannot be acquired through traditional means, due to the blockade on the country's accounts.