Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president, has ordered the biggest bank in the country Banco de Venezuela to accept the Petro cryptocurrency in all its 790 agencies across the country.
“I am giving the explicit order to open Petro transaction desks at all Banco de Venezuela agencies.”- stated
The decree was made during a celebration of the tenth anniversary of the bank’s nationalization after Venezuela acquired it from Santander Group in 2009.
#EnVivo | Pdte. @NicolasMaduro: Doy la orden expresa para que se abran taquillas de transacciones de El Petro en todas las agencias del Banco de Venezuela#TrabajoPazYProduccion#10AñosBDV pic.twitter.com/mTMy8j2xs7
— MPPEF (@MinEcoFinanzas) July 3, 2019
The move seems to be part of an aggressive tactic to raise cryptocurrency adoption throughout the country. President Nicolas Maduro also revealed that it will allocate crypto wallets to one million young citizens. The Venezuelan government will also provide educational information when it comes to crypto matters.
The wallets will have deposited in them a number of crypto funds. Through this, the Maduro administration wants to bring more acceptance for the Venezuelan stablecoin.
The crypto community from Venezuela received the news with positive reactions. José Angel Alvarez, president of the National Cryptocurrency Association (ASONACRIP), pointed out that that Banco de Venezuela’s infrastructure has what it takes to further the adoption of the Venezuelan Petro all over the country.
“It is a bold and correct decision to move forward towards a hybrid economy where the fiduciary currency of a country competes face to face with cryptocurrency.
We should also note that Banco de Venezuela is the most important bank in the Venezuelan financial system and has the most significant number of clients. With this decision, this bank would become one of the exchanges with more physical offices in the world”.
The news of the presidential decree led to a 25% increase in Petro (PTR) against Bitcoin (BTC). The coin shot up from 0.004 BTC to 0.005 BTC in just a matter of hours. “In Amberes [a local crypto exchange], I bought Petros at 10 dollars” stated Alvarez. “Today you cannot buy the token for less than 55 dollars”.
Featured Image: Reuters
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