Venezuela has officially launched what its President Nicolas Maduro claims is a first state-backed oil-backed cryptocurrency, El Petro, which analysts and experts see as nothing but a scam and another effort to skirt sanctions and mask the inability to overhaul the ailing domestic economy.
Over the past months, Maduro has been touting a new plan for economic recovery, which includes a new policy on gasoline pricing that would raise Venezuela's ultra-cheap gas prices for the first time in two decades. The plan to ease the severe economic crisis also featured a devaluation of the currency and pegging the new bolivars to the Petro.
Maduro claims that the Petro is strengthening his recently announced economic overhaul plan and will "revolutionize" the global crypto economy with a new form of trade, finance, and monetary exchange.
The official public sale of the Petro - which Venezuela say is backed by oil, natural gas, diamonds, and gold-will begin on November 5, Maduro has said.
Comment: Venezuela's partnerships with China should provide some comfort to investors, aid in stabilization efforts while countering the malign influence of the US.