2.7 TRILLION BOLIVARS: VENEZUELA BITCOIN TRADING HITS ALL-TIME HIGH

Coming just after the debt-ridden country’s parliament formally approved a law requiring all government institutions to accept its Petro cryptocurrency by July, the astonishing numbers dwarf any other week since records began in 2013.

Trading figures are compiled by monitoring site Coin Dance, which uses official exchange rates for the US dollar, putting the hard currency equivalent at around $55 million.

By comparison, the previous week saw $35 million change hands, while for the last week of March, the numbers totalled around $18 million.

 As Bitcoinist reported Saturday, the highly controversial Petro will now become enforced legal tender across various sectors of the ailing Venezuelan economy, despite multiple sources – including some in the country’s parliament – labelling it a corruption scam.While the US has banned citizens from interacting with it, attention now focuses on Russia, after news of a trade dealinvolving Petro surfaced earlier this month.The Kremlin had previously denied Caracas was due to start repaying its debts using the altcoin.