Venezuela is ending its Petro cryptocurrency on Monday, more than five years after it was first launched, according to multiple reports citing a message displayed on the Patria Platform, the only website where it was tradeable.
President Nicolas Maduro launched the Petro (PTR) in Feb. 2018 to support the nation’s currency, the bolívar, in the face of an economic crisis exacerbated by U.S. sanctions.
The token, backed by the nation’s rich oil reserves, was controversial even before the launch. The country’s opposition-controlled congress said borrowing against the oil reserves was illegal. In 2019, U.S. authorities sanctioned a Russian bank for financing the Petro.
The Venezuelan government made several attempts to link Petro with services; for example, it was required to obtain passports to fund a social housing initiative, and the minimum wage was 50% pegged to it.
According to one report, any remaining petros are being converted to bolivars, the ailing local currency. Petro’s final nail in the coffin was a corruption scandal over financial irregularities around using crypto assets for oil operations. AFP reported that this led to the petroleum minister Tareck El Aissami’s resignation and a crackdown on Bitcoin mining operations.
The Venezuelan government could not be reached for comment.