The crypto, intended as a blow against U.S. sanctions, was never accepted at home or abroad and was crippled by scandal.
The Venezuelan petro national cryptocurrency will cease to operate on Jan. 15, according to press reports. The coin was created in 2018 to help the country evade United States sanctions, but was never widely used.
The shutdown of the Petro (PTR) was reportedly announced on the government-run website devoted to the coin, but that website was not accessible at the time of writing. The administrative portion of the Venezuelan Patria website, reportedly the only place where the Petro traded, is accessible only by password.
The state-run, oil-backed crypto was launched after the fiat bolivar declined sharply under pressure from United States sanctions and after Bitcoin had already gained a firm foothold in the country. The issuance of the petro was ordered by the strongman president Nicolas Maduro, but opposed by the parliament.
