Breaking: Trump Bans US Citizens, Residents from Venezuela’s Crypto ‘Petro’

US president Donald Trump has issued an executive order banning US citizens from buying, trading or dealing in cryptocurrencies (the Petro) related to the Venezuelan government.

In what is certain to be the first crypto-related executive action taken by a US president, the White House revealed Donald Trump’s executive order to unconditionally ban all activities related to Venezuelan government-issued or related cryptocurrencies within the United States. The move was “in light of recent actions taken by the Maduro regime to attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions by issuing a digital currency in a process that Venezuela’s democratically elected National Assembly has denounced as unlawful,” the White House said.

An excerpt from the executive order confirmed:

All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order.

As reported previously, Venezuelan president first announced the ‘Petro’, a digital currency backed by Venezuela’s massive oil reserves as a means to combat US sanctions and the financial blockade, earlier in December.

The Petro saw its pre-sale launch on February 20 and isn’t without controversy with the country’s national assembly declaring it a ‘fraud’ while market observers have criticized the petro for undermining legitimate decentralized cryptocurrencies.