Venezuela famously pegged its national currency to a newly created state-backed cryptocurrency called the Petro in 2018, supposedly backed by the country's vast oil, gas, gold,…

A closer look

Venezuela famously pegged its national currency to a newly created state-backed cryptocurrency called the Petro in 2018, supposedly backed by the country's vast oil, gas, gold, and diamond reserves, in a desperate attempt to circumvent devastating international economic sanctions. Almost no one outside or inside the country actually adopted this digital token for real-world transactions, and it ultimately served as a spectacular failure in sovereign monetary policy before being quietly shut down entirely by the government. There is a special kind of dark comedy in watching a struggling nation try to solve crippling hyperinflation and systemic economic collapse by hastily launching a shady crypto coin, basically applying the exact same financial strategy as a desperate tech bro trying to pay off his underwater mortgage