Venezuela raised  $735m in the first day of  "petro" pre-sale

As we have reported on Tuesday,  Venezuela launched its cryptocurrency to support the economy ruined by crisis and Western sanctions.  

President Nicolas Maduro claims that the government managed to raise $735m in the first day of the pre-sale. He believes that petro is a "big solution to big problems" and celebrates its initial success. Maduro provided neither hard evidence for his figures nor information about principal investors.  

"A grandes problemas, ¡grandes soluciones! Desde el primer minuto el juego arrancó bien, y arrancamos ganando: 4.777 millones de yuanes o 735 millones de dólares es el resultado inicial de las operaciones de intención de compra del Petro." - he wrote in his Tweeter account

According to the site paper, the government plans to issue 100m petro tokens and distribute 38.4m on pre-sale at the reference price of $60.  Other 44m coins will be sold on the ICO round that starts on March 19. 

Petro is the first cryptocurrency backed by natural resources, such as gold, oil, gas, and diamonds, it will be accepted as payment for taxes, fees, and public services.

Ethereum or NEM?

There is a huge controversy about which protocol the token will use.  According to previously released white paper, petro will be an ERC20 token. Thus it will operate within Ethereum blockchain.  But the buyer's guide, published by the government, specifies that PTR token will work NEM blockchain.