Venezuelans will ‘soon’ be able to make crypto payments
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has said that the country’s government will activate a cryptocurrency payment method for citizens “very soon."
The method will enable new instruments for “free national and international payments” allowing everyone to conduct banking transactions, Maduro said in a televised press conference, as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday.
“The finance minister and Venezuela’s central bank have new instruments which we will activate very soon so that everyone can do banking transactions, as well as national and international payments through the central bank’s accounts. Venezuela is working within the cryptocurrency world,” Maduro said.
Just last week, there were reports that the central bank of Venezuela was exploring adding cryptocurrencies, specifically bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), to its international reserves.
Venezuela also has a native, state-issued cryptocurrency called Petro, which is backed by the country's oil reserves. Maduro recently attempted to convince other countries to accept the petro as an alternative to the U.S. dollar in the oil markets and for global trade.
