'No Sign of the Petro Here': Mystery and Confusion Besets Venezuela's Crypto 'Revolution'

Reuters has today, August 30, published an investigative report into Venezuela's national oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro, attempting to square government claims with facts on the ground and evidence of the Petro's transaction history to date.

Reuters' investigators claim that the area on the ground showed little sign of oil-industry activity, with only scattered and weathered rigs to be seen.

As Reuters notes, the Petro does not currently trade on any of the major international crypto exchanges.

Other exchanges - including Coinbase, Bittrex and Kraken - reportedly declined to comment as to why they have chosen not to list the Petro.

Of the 16 minor exchanges that are said to support Petro trade, Reuters could not discern any internet presence for seven of them.

Only India-based Coinsecure has publicly pledged to support the petro, in exchange for royalties from Venezuela.

Reuters further undertook an effort to probe official statements from president Maduro that sales of the Petro have raised $3.3 billion to date.

According to the Petro white paper, Singapore-developed NEM tokens serve as the "Preliminary" token for the initiative, later to be exchanged for Petros.

While the issuance in question is said to have targeted "Major investors," no one has reportedly to date publicly confirmed having made an investment of this scale in the Petro.

Ahead of Reuters' investigations, significant voices from the Venezuelan crypto community have this month similarly scathingly denounced the petro as little more than an opaque "Stunt" backed by a centralized and debt-crippled entity.