Trump bans purchases of Venezuela’s new national cryptocurrency
President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to ban Venezuela’s new national cryptocurrency, the petro, from being purchased by Americans or by anyone inside a US territory. It’s the first cryptocurrency-related executive order a president has issued and another blow to an already dubious virtual token that’s supposedly backed by oil reserves, as Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro has said.
Trump’s order describes the petro’s initial coin offering as “recent actions taken by the Maduro regime to attempt to circumvent US sanctions,” and declares all related transactions unlawful. His order also makes reference to Venezuela’s National Assembly being in opposition to the launch of the petro. One legislator from the assembly called...