🇻🇪💸 — Exclusive: Venezuela to accelerate cryptocurrency shift as oil sanctions return

➡️ Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA plans to increase digital currency usage in its crude and fuel exports as the U.S. reimposes oil sanctions on the country, three people familiar with the plan said.

‼️ The U.S. Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA's customers and providers until May 31 to wind down transactions under a general license it did not renew due to a lack of electoral reforms. The move will make it more difficult for the country to increase oil output and exports as companies will have to wait for individual U.S. authorizations to do business with Venezuela.

💵 The U.S. dollar is the preferred currency for transactions in the global oil market. Even though they are emerging in some countries, payments in cryptocurrency are not frequent.

🔎 PDVSA also is requiring any new customer applying to conduct oil transactions to hold cryptocurrency in a digital wallet. The requirement has been enforced even in some old contracts that do not specifically state the use of USDT, one of the people said.

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