Venezuela's central bank considers accepting cryptocurrencies

The Venezuelan government is considering whether or not it can hold cryptocurrencies in its national reserves, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited “four people with direct knowledge of the matter.” The state-operated gas company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) is looking to send BTC and ETH tokens to the country’s central bank.

The company is expecting that the central bank will use crypto tokens to pay its suppliers. Moreover, several proposals were filed to allow cryptocurrencies to be counted in the country’s international reserves, which are near a three-decade low of $7.9 billion.

As Bloomberg reported, PDVSA is unsure about selling its cryptocurrency on the open market because “it would require the company to register with an exchange and subject itself to due diligence. Instead, it wants the central bank, which officials at the oil company believe is less exposed to potential blocks, to use the crypto to pay entities PDVSA owes money to.” 

Cryptocurrencies have been very popular in the South American country. Venezuela has been isolated from the world economy after the US announced sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian regime, which has worsened the country’s economic crisis.

The country managed to create its own cryptocurrency, dubbed "the Petro", which was backed by oil and other commodities. Petro was viewed as a covert attempt to access international debt markets which performed poorly in the crypto market.