Compartilhe este artigo
Venezuela's President Announces 'Petro' Token Pre-Sale
The president of Venezuela has said the pre-sale of the country's proposed oil-backed cryptocurrency will launch next month.
Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has said the pre-sale of the country's proposed cryptocurrency – the "petro" – will launch next month.
Signing the petro white paper on Tuesday, Maduro stated that the initial sale of the token will commence on Feb. 20th. President Maduro also revealed that plans are being drawn up to use the petro – which is backed by commodity reserves, including oil – with a national ID card possessed by millions of Venezuelans, a Bloomberg report states.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Não perca outra história.Inscreva-se na Newsletter Crypto Daybook Americas hoje. Ver Todas as Newsletters
Maduro further announced that mining centers are being setup at educational institutions to produce the token. This apprently has been revised from an initial draft proposal that the petro was supposed to be pre-mined before launch.
Maduro stated on state TV, according to Bloomberg:
"The petro will have a great impact, in how we access foreign currencies for the country and in how we obtain goods and services that we need from around the world."
The controversial token was announced back in December of last year, with the declared aim of bypassing financial sanctions.
The country's opposition-run congress soon after declared that petro is "illegal" and that it would be effectively borrowing against the country's oil reserves. As such, the move would violate laws that specify the legislature must approve government borrowing.
"This is not a cryptocurrency, this is a forward sale of Venezuelan oil," said legislator Jorge Millan at the time, calling it "tailor-made for corruption."
Additionally, on Jan. 22, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Robert Menendez denounced Venezuela's planned cryptocurrency in an open letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The two senators wanted to know how the department would move to prevent the country from using the petro to bypass U.S. sanctions.
They wrote:
"It is imperative that the U.S. Treasury Department is equipped with tools and enforcement mechanisms to combat the use of cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions in general, and in this case in particular."
Nicolas Maduro image via Shutterstock
Mais para você
O que saber:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin’s Deep Correction Sets Stage for December Rebound, Says K33 Research
K33 Research says market fear is outweighing fundamentals as bitcoin nears key levels. December could offer an entry point for bold investors.
What to know:
- K33 Research says bitcoin’s steep correction shows signs of bottoming, with December potentially marking a turning point.
- The firm has argued that the market is overreacting to long-term risks while ignoring near-term signals of strength, like low leverage and solid support levels.
- With likely policy shifts ahead and cautious positioning in futures, K33 sees more upside potential than risk of another major collapse.
Top Stories
