Venezuela Authorizes 6 Exchanges to Start Selling National Cryptocurrency Petro

Venezuela has authorized six cryptocurrency exchanges to start selling its national cryptocurrency, the petro, according to the government’s website. The petro, which recently became a Venezuelan national currency, can now be purchased at the six exchanges, local media report.

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Six Websites Authorized to Sell Petro

The Venezuelan government has authorized six websites it claims are cryptocurrency exchanges to market and sell the petro, the country’s new national currency. Noticiero Digital elaborated:

The petro will be available from this Wednesday, October 17, at six exchanges, although President Maduro announced previously that there would be 16 certified companies that could market the digital currency.

The six places are Cave Blockchain (caveblockchain.com), Bancar (bancarexchange.io), Cryptia (cryptiaexchange.com), Amberes Coin (amberescoin.com), Afx Trade (afx.trade), and Criptolago (criptolago.com.ve). Some of them are already advertising the petro on their websites. In his speech earlier this month, Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro said that the petro would be available at “the six most powerful [exchanges] in the world.”

Cryptia’s website lists three cryptocurrencies for trading against BTC — ETH, DASH, and XRP — but with zero trading volumes. “Buy and sell petros through our platform,” the section on its website describing the petro reads, adding (translated from Spanish):

Access the cryptocurrency [petro] in bolivares and exchange them for bitcoin, ethereum or American dollars.

Amberes Coin describes itself as a cryptocurrency exchange “authorized by the Venezuelan State for the purchase and sale of the petro, bitcoin, ether and any digital assets” that are allowed by the country’s regulation. Afx Trade explained that it is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange platform in Venezuela for buying, selling, and safeguarding “digital assets inside and outside the national territory.”

Maduro’s government released a new whitepaper for the petro earlier this month, bearing striking resemblance to the whitepaper for another cryptocurrency, DASH.

In addition, the petro is no longer only backed by oil, as it was first described in December of last year. The new whitepaper explains that the petro is now backed by 50 percent oil, 20 percent gold, 20 percent iron, and 10 percent diamond.

In April, Maduro announced that he had “authorized the certification” of 16 exchanges for the petro. Noting that only six exchanges have actually been authorized, Noticiero Digital pointed out that Afx Trade was not included in the initial list of 16 exchanges.

Regulating Crypto Industry in Venezuela

In Venezuela, the National Superintendency of Criptoassets and Related Activities (Sunacrip) is responsible for regulating cryptocurrencies and all crypto-related activities.

Its website details:

Exchanges need licenses issued by the Venezuelan State in order to operate in Venezuela. Its reason lies in the protection of users of exchanges with regulatory and administrative infrastructure.

Digital mining in Venezuela is regulated by the Intendence of Digital Mining, which is part of Sunacrip. “The Intendence of Digital Mining is in charge of planning, coordinating, promoting and executing all the digital mining and related activities in Venezuela,” Sunacrip’s website describes. “This includes issuing licenses [and] certifications for all mining activities.”

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Cryptia, and the Venezuelan government.

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