UPDATED 21:51 EDT / MARCH 19 2018

EMERGING TECH

Trump bans US purchases of Venezuela’s ‘Petro’ cryptocurrency

U.S. President Donald Trump today banned Americans from trading Venezuela’s “Petro” cryptocurrency in a blow to what was already a dubious moneymaking scheme.

The executive order, signed Monday, retrospectively dates to Jan. 9 a ban on all U.S. citizens undertaking any transactions, financing or other dealings in any digital currency, digital coin or digital token issued by or on behalf of the government of Venezuela. The order goes on to cover any methods or means that have the purpose of evading or avoiding the order.

Venezuela announced its intention to launch the Petro, a cryptocurrency allegedly tied to the country’s oil reserves, before launching a presale Feb. 20. The presale offered 82.4 million tokens out of what is claimed will be a total of 100 million tokens worth $6 billion, meaning that Venezuela would raise $4.9 billion, much-needed foreign currency for the struggling socialist state.

Trump’s order is no surprise, since Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro had previously said that the initial coin offering and cryptocurrency were squarely aimed at bypassing U.S. trade sanctions to “advance in issues of monetary sovereignty, to make financial transactions and overcome the financial blockade.”

The use of ICOs and cryptocurrencies to facilitate financial transactions has recently caught the attention of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It said in a letter earlier this month that ICOs need to be registered as money transmitters and also comply with anti-money-laundering statutes and know-your-customer rules. “An exchange that sells ICO coins or tokens, or exchanges them for other virtual currency, fiat currency, or other value that substitutes for currency, would typically also be a money transmitter,” FinCEN said.

Photo: The Photographer/Wikimedia Commons

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