Venezuela plans to back its national oil-pegged cryptocurrency, the Petro (PTR), with 30 million barrels of crude oil. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that the oil inventories are sitting in the country’s storage tanks and are ready for immediate commercialization to serve as a “liquid, physical, material backing” for the Petro.
The president announced the news on Nov. 20 on state television, according to a Reuters report. In the announcement, Maduro called the Petro a “sovereign Venezuelan crypto asset.”