Bitfinex Denies Listing Venezuela’s Petro Anytime Soon

Bitfinex, the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange by trading ‎volume, said it would not be updating its list of cryptocurrencies on offer to add Venezuela’s newly released cryptocurrency, the petro.‎

‎ In its blog post explaining the decision, Bitfinex‎ pointed to Donald Trump’s executive order which prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in ‎transactions using the oil-backed digital currency.

Bitfinex‎ explained that as of the date of this statement, it had no “plans to include the PTR or similar tokens in the Bitfinex ‎trading platform.”

Bitfinex said that it would always consider elements such as liquidity and security when ‎evaluating possible inclusions. The popular crypto exchange has also barred its contractors and employees from buying, selling, trading and transacting in any way with the PTR, effective immediately.

“‎This restriction extends to all customers of the platform, ‎including U.S. persons, and to all activities on Bitfinex, including deposits, ‎financing, trading, and withdrawals,” it further stated.

In spite of the attention-grabbing headlines, Venezuela’s ‎new cryptocurrency has hit another snag last week, as the ‎U.S. authorities are once more sounding the bell ‎to remind the country’s investors about the sanctions that ‎it ‎maintains on the South American country.‎

The decision pretty much bars all people and companies subject to US jurisdiction from touching the newly-issued ‎virtual coin ‎since it constitutes, in essence, a government debt ‎issuance.‎ Trump has authorized Treasury ‎Department to issue any necessary regulations to enforce his order.‎

In the meantime, some analysts argue the vast majority ‎of perto frenzyis either a scam or far too ambitious for ‎their own good.

Earlier in December, the CFTC ordered Bitfinex to ‎provide more information about Tethers, ‎which are tokens ‎backed by US dollar deposits, with each ‎token always ‎worth one dollar, as the two entities share the ‎same CEO, ‎Jan Ludovicus van der Velde.‎