US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning the use of Venezuela's new crypto-currency, Petro.

The executive order, signed by Trump on Monday, prohibits all US transactions in digital currencies that benefit the Venezuelan government.

Trump described the February launch of the Petro cryptocurrency as an "attempt to circumvent US sanctions", according to a White House statement announcing the order.

The order bans US businesses and citizens, specifically "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".

The US government's actions are believed to send a clear message to their counterparts in Venezuela.

Treasury Secretary Steven T Mnuchin said on Monday that the US ban is aimed at "restoring Venezuelan democracy, combating the kleptocracy of the Maduro regime, and responding to the humanitarian crisis caused by Maduro's economic policy".

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The Venezuelan government referred to the US ban as "gross meddling" and tantamount to "new imperial aggression" against its "financial and economic system".

It said it will maintain its "sovereign decision to continue promoting Blockchain technology and make the Petro one of the most solid and reliable cryptocurrencies in the world".

In February, Venezuela became the first country to launch its own digital currency, which critics regarded as a cash levy to pay off Venezuela's foreign debt of $150bn.

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro tweeted that the government earned $735m on its launch day - a claim that has not been independently verified.

Currently the Petro is propped up by Venezuela's extensive crude oil reserves.

On Monday, the US also imposed sanctions against four current and former Venezuelan officials on allegations of mismanagement, bribery and corruption.

The sanctions come before Trump's visit to the Summit of the Americas next month in Peru, where the Venezulean crisis is expected to be discussed.

Since November 2017, Venezuela has been in "selective fault" on its foreign debt, foregoing repayment to its bondholders.</s>Trump delivers a speech at the National Republican Congressional Committee annual March Dinner at in DC on March 20th.

Naturally, Donald Trump’s decision to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his recent election win didn’t go unnoticed by the late-night set. Though Trump’s team tried to divert this drama by actually writing “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” on his call notes, the president went rogue, as is to be expected by now. Late-night hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Conan O’Brien quickly sank their claws into this latest mess, mocking Trump for a blundering diplomatic misstep.

On The Late Show, Colbert noted that Russia’s election was “rigged to prop up a dangerous strongman who is threatening Western democracy. That requires a strong response—so Donald Trump called him up to say, ‘Atta boy!’”

He continued, joking that Putin does deserve some credit for winning “by the most made-up votes.” Colbert also noted how Trump’s decision has been received by other politicians and the general public: “A lot of people weren’t happy that Trump was giving the thumbs-up to a murderous dictator for winning a sham election,” he said, pointing out that a bipartisan group of senators were ashen-faced at a recent press conference when they were asked about the call.

Conan O’Brien went the obvious route, comparing Putin’s election to Trump’s election in 2016.

“Earlier today, President Trump called Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his presidential win,” he began. “Coincidentally, Trump made the same call to Putin on November 9, 2016.”

Jimmy Kimmel also lobbed a quip at Putin and the president’s relationship, dubbing the Russian leader Trump’s “K.G.B.F.F.”

“This guy just poisoned two people. Trump is calling to congratulate him,” Kimmel declared—perhaps referencing a former Russian spy and his daughter, who remain hospitalized following a nerve-agent attack two weeks ago. Just another perfectly normal day in Trump’s America.</s>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has invited US President Donald Trump to a formal meeting and has committed to stop nuclear and missile testing.</s>WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is banning all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions.

In an executive order issued on Monday, President Donald Trump declared illegal all transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction this month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the "petro," for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.

In the executive order, Trump said it was an "attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions" imposed for democratic backsliding. The Treasury had said in January that the petro appeared to be an extension of credit to Venezuela and warned that transactions in it may violate U.S. sanctions.</s>President Donald Trump has sanctioned Venezuela's new currency, the petro, a cryptocurrency that the U.S. government says is intended to evade international penalties on the nation's regime.

The order issued on Monday prohibits all transactions related to the petro or other digital currencies issued to benefit Venezuela's government.

The sanctions are the latest effort by Trump to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who has increasingly clamped down on the country's opposition. Maduro ostensibly offered the tokens as a way to raise money and evade sanctions as Venezuela descends into political and economic crisis.

“The petro is a scam ripe for exploitation,” a senior administration official said on a conference call with reporters. “Investing in the petro should be seen as directly supporting the dictatorship” of Maduro.

Maduro claimed the new currency would be backed by oil from the petroleum-rich country's nationalized energy industry, and that $735 million has already been raised through its issuance.

But despite a high-profile televised January rollout featuring Maduro himself, skepticism about the currency reverberated through the cryptocurrency world. Bitcoin supporters often cite it as a hedge against the kind of rapid inflation that Venezuela's original currency, the bolívar, has experienced under Maduro.

White House and Treasury officials said the U.S. had not yet made a decision on sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil industry, the backbone of the country’s economy.

“As the president has made very clear, all options are still on the table” regarding Venezuela, said the senior administration official. But oil sanctions against the South American country’s government could have broader implications on ordinary Venezuelans, as well as the U.S. and regional economies.

"While Venezuela's attempt to issue a cryptocurrency is novel, there's nothing new about the U.S. restricting financial dealings with sanctioned countries," said Jerry Brito, executive director of the D.C.-based nonprofit Coin Center in a statement. "Issuing a cryptocurrency is not going to help Venezuela escape sanctions."

The official said the sanctions applied only to cryptocurrencies directly issued by or to benefit the Venezuelan government. U.S. individuals or exchanges that move cryptocurrencies that had at one time been exchanged for petros would not be subject to penalties as long as they do not deal with the Venezuelan currency itself.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), an outspoken critic of the Maduro government, praised the sanctions.

“This move against corrupt officials in the Maduro regime targets their ability to use cryptocurrencies to circumvent U.S. and international sanctions,” the Florida Republican said in a release. “I commend the president and his administration for continuing to take action against efforts by the illegitimate Maduro regime to exploit illicit financial lifelines, and encourage additional sanctions in the weeks to come.”

In addition to Monday's sanctions against the petro, Treasury announced financial penalties against four more current or former Venezuelan government officials over "economic mismanagement and corruption."</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday banned all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions.

In an executive order issued on Monday that took effect immediately, President Donald Trump declared illegal all transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction last month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the “petro,” for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.

In the executive order, Trump said it was an “attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions” imposed for democratic backsliding.

The Treasury had said in January that the petro appeared to be an extension of credit to Venezuela and warned that transactions in it may violate U.S. sanctions.

In February, cash-strapped Venezuela became the first country to launch its own version of bitcoin, the petro, in a move that President Nicolas Maduro celebrated as putting his country on the world’s technological forefront.

The petro is backed by Venezuela’s crude oil reserves, the largest in the world, yet it has arrived on the market as the socialist country sinks deeper into an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and food shortages that put residents in lines for hours to buy common products.

Maduro had announced late last year that he was creating the digital currency to outmaneuver U.S. sanctions preventing Venezuela from issuing new debt.

Bitcoin and other digital tokens are already widely used in Venezuela as a hedge against hyperinflation and an easy-to-use mechanism for paying for everything from doctor visits to honeymoons in a country where obtaining hard currency requires transactions in the illegal black market.

The government has promised that Venezuelans will be able to use the $60 coins to pay taxes and for public services. But with the Venezuelan minimum wage hovering around $3 a month, it’s unlikely citizens will buy in large amounts.</s>Cryptos are moving sharply lower in response to news that President Trump has issued an executive order banning the U.S. purchases of the "Petro", the cryptocurrency which was infamously rolled out by the Venezuelan government; the order comes as part of a campaign to put more pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

So why was the executive order Bizarre?

Because, in what one hopes was just a grammatical oversight, the subject of the email sent out to the media notifying of the cryptocurrency ban, was that it is an "Executive Order on Taking Additional Steps To Address the Situation In America." Only after reading the actual email was it revealed that the EO actually refers to Venezuela, prompting some commentators to note that "Trump hasn't yet succeeded in turning America into Venezuela."

The full executive order can be found at the following link, and is summarized as follows in Trump's letter to Congress:

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), I hereby report that I have signed an Executive Order with respect to Venezuela that takes additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13692 of March 8, 2015, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13808 of August 24, 2017. The Executive Order prohibits, as of its effective date, 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. I have authorized the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including promulgating rules and regulations and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the Executive Order. I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

As a reminder, one month ago Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced that the launch of his country’s oil-backed answer to Bitcoin, Petro, raised $735 million in its first day, despite warnings by the Treasury Department that investors should stay away.

In a tweet in February, the Venezuelan leader said that investors had promised 4.8 billion yuan, or $735 million in a pre-sale of Petro, the cryptocurrency Maduro hopes will help boost Venezuela’s ailing economy. Maduro has said that he hopes the Petro will help the country skirt Western sanctions, though the U.S. Treasury has warned that it won’t be that easy. In mid-January, the department told potential Petro investors that they could be subject to sanctions against Venezuela.

“Available information indicates that, once issued, the Petro digital currency would appear to be an extension of credit to the Venezuelan government,” the Treasury department said in a statement to Reuters.

And now, the US is escalating, with Bloomberg reporting first that Trump issued the order on Monday prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions using the oil-backed cryptocurrency. He authorized Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to issue any necessary regulations to enforce his order.

And while the EO has nothing to do with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies, and certainly nothing to do with the US, the entire crypto sector instantly dropped by 3-5%, perhaps on concerns that any other cryptocurrency could just as easily fall in Trump's sights next.</s>President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibits Americans from dealing in any form of digital currency from Venezuela on Monday, a day before that country's launch of a state-owned cryptocurrency called the "petro."The executive order prohibits "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."Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's administration introduced the oil-backed digital currency in February with his nation's economy in crisis and the bolivar experiencing hyperinflation.In the order , Trump characterized the Maduro administration's actions as an "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."Monday's executive order builds upon a body of existing sanctions directed at Venezuela, including those stemming from another executive order Trump signed in August that put restrictions on dealing in Venezuelan bonds or new debt, and one signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 that cited Venezuela's "erosion of human rights guarantees, persecution of political opponents, curtailment of press freedoms, use of violence and human rights violations" as justification.</s>The Trump administration on Monday banned all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions. In a separate move, the administration also slapped sanctions on four current and former senior Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and mismanagement.

 

 In an executive order that took effect immediately upon its issuance, President Donald Trump declared illegal all U.S. transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction last month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the "petro," for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.

 

 In the executive order, Trump said it was an "attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions" imposed for democratic backsliding.

 

 The Treasury had said in January that the petro appeared to be an extension of credit to Venezuela and warned that transactions in it may violate U.S. sanctions.

 

 In February, cash-strapped Venezuela became the first country to launch its own version of bitcoin, the petro, in a move that President Nicolas Maduro celebrated as putting his country on the world's technological forefront.

 

 The petro is backed by Venezuela's crude oil reserves, the largest in the world, yet it has arrived on the market as the socialist country sinks deeper into an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and food shortages that put residents in lines for hours to buy common products.

Maduro had announced late last year that he was creating the digital currency to outmaneuver U.S. sanctions preventing Venezuela from issuing new debt.

 

 Bitcoin and other digital tokens are already widely used in Venezuela as a hedge against hyperinflation and an easy-to-use mechanism for paying for everything from doctor visits to honeymoons in a country where obtaining hard currency requires transactions in the illegal black market.

 

 The government has promised that Venezuelans will be able to use the $60 coins to pay taxes and for public services. But with the Venezuelan minimum wage hovering around $3 a month, it's unlikely citizens will buy in large amounts.

 

 In its own statement on Monday, Treasury said it was hitting the four current and former Venezuelan officials with sanctions that freeze any assets they may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

 

 The four include Americo Alex Mata, a director of Venezuela's National Bank of Housing and Habitat and coordinator of Maduro's 2013 campaign, Willian Antonio Contreras, the head of the body that oversees price controls in the country, Nelson Reinaldo Lepaje, the head of the Office of the National Treasury, and Carlos Alberto Rotondaro, the former president of the Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Institute of Social Security.</s>U.S. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order to ban Petro in the U.S. Petro is a cryptocurrency developed by the government of Venezuela.

As of today, U.S. citizens, residents and companies can’t buy or sell Petro. The executive order says that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is trying to avoid U.S. sanctions against Venezuela with this new cryptocurrency. The U.S. Treasury Department already warned U.S. investors back in January.

Maduro first unveiled the country’s cryptocurrency in December. He said that Petro would be backed by oil and mineral reserves. But the issue is that the Venezuelan government unilateraly fixes the price of the Petro. So Maduro can say Petro tokens aren’t worth anything in a year without any consequence.

While the government has published multiple whitepapers, it’s still unclear if Petro is based on the Ethereum blockchain or NEM blockchain. But it didn’t stop them from raising hundreds of millions of dollars during the pre-sale. Venezuela’s National Assembly has also deemed Petro illegal.

Venezuela currently faces an economic collapse combined with hyperinflation. The bolívar fuerte, the country’s currency, is now worth 10,000 times less than its value in August 2012.

So turning to cryptocurrencies could be a smart move when your bank notes aren’t worth anything. But it doesn’t solve the core of the issue.

Disclosure: I own small amounts of various cryptocurrencies.
U.S. President Donald Trump issues an executive order banning U.S. entities from trading in the Venezuelan Petro cryptocurrency. Trump calls the digital currency, launched last month, an "attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions".