Poland Refutes Reports of Its Interest in Venezuela's Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency

Poland’s Ministry of Finance has refuted reports that it is interested in the petro, the Venezuelan ”oil-backed” currency. Earlier this month, Venezuela reportedly claimed that a handful of countries have expressed interest in receiving the petro for commerce with Venezuela such as Norway, Denmark, Brazil, Vietnam, Poland, and others.

Also read: Indians Look to Buy Bitcoin Overseas as Regulations Tighten

Poland Denies Interest in Petro

Prior to the launch of Venezuela’s new currency, the petro, the country’s Minister of Foreign Trade, José Vielma Mora, was quoted by Telesur TV saying that Poland and a number of other countries have “expressed interest in exporting goods to Venezuela like food and medicine” and receiving payments for them in petros.

Polish publication Gazeta “asked the [Polish] Ministry of Finance if this was true and what value it would have to have [for] such a transaction and when it could be carried out,” the publication wrote. The finance ministry replied:

The Ministry of Finance did not receive any letter in this matter…Cryptocurrencies are not issued or guaranteed by the central bank or other state institutions. Therefore, they are not legal tender or currency, they can not be used to pay tax liabilities and are not widely accepted at commercial and service outlets.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also answered the news outlet’s questions about the country’s possible support of Venezuela’s cryptocurrency. “According to the knowledge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland did not report interest in transactions with the use of petro cryptocurrency,” the foreign ministry clarified.

Countries Supposedly Interested in Petro

In addition to Poland, Venezuela has also reportedly claimed that several other countries are interested in receiving petros for trades with it. Telesur TV specifically mentioned “Denmark, Honduras, Norway, [and] Vietnam.”

Without elaborating, the Venezuelan Superintendent of Cryptocurrency, Carlos Vargas, said prior to the petro launch that:

There will surely be a lot of investors from Qatar, Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East, though Europeans and Americans will also participate.

Earlier this month, Maduro called on OPEC countries to join him in developing the platform for oil-backed cryptocurrencies.

Last week, the Venezuelan Minister of Popular Power for Economy and Finance tweeted that he has reviewed the economic and financial cooperation with Anton Siluanov, the Russian finance minister, “with the emphasis on the new cryptocurrency of Venezuela, the petro.”

The Venezuelan government claimed last week that it has raised more than $1 billion from the petro’s pre-sale in just two days, although some doubt that Venezuela has raised money at all with its new currency.

Do you think Venezuela has made any false statements surrounding the launch of the petro? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.