Venezuela’s Digital Currency Use to Face Tighter Regulatory Scrutiny The development comes as Venezuela’s state oil company
PDVSA is ramping up digital currency use for crude oil and fuel exports, according to Reuters. This decision follows the
Biden administration declining to renew a license that had eased restrictions. Essentially, this led to
reimposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.
In response, Venezuelan opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez and a
Chainalysis director Kristofer Doucette presented a report on Monday, calling for democratic
governments to take action. Their report detailed financial transactions conducted since Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro’s inauguration. Since last year, PDVSA has reportedly been quietly ramping up its use of digital currency. The company has particularly been using
Tether (USDT) for oil sales to avoid having accounts frozen by US oil sanctions. Maduro earlier suggested there are countries interested in doing business with
Venezuela. But they would be willing to do so if they could use digital currency to avoid the
traditional financial system. The report further stated that other
autocratic leaders under international sanctions, like those in Iran and Russia, have launched their own
crypto programs. These programs, the report alleges, are a way to dodge financial systems reliant on US dollars or Euros, currencies
vulnerable to sanctions.
