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Venezuela’s continued use of cryptocurrency amid US sanctions
- Venezuela will likely use cryptocurrencies to circumvent US sanctions on oil and gold, dissidents and analysts say.
- The United States has reimposed sanctions due to the Maduro government’s failure to comply with pre-election agreements set for July 28.
Venezuela is likely to continue using cryptocurrencies to evade a new round of US sanctions focused on the country’s oil and gold activities, according to Venezuelan dissidents and cryptocurrency analysts.
The Nicolas Maduro administration, despite being embroiled in corruption cases involving cryptocurrencies, appears poised to continue exploiting these digital assets to divert funds from regulated channels.
In May, the United States reimposed sanctions on Venezuela, citing the Maduro government’s failure to respect agreements made with the United States to ensure fair conditions for the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for July 28. Analysts indicate that the Venezuelan government will use cryptocurrency as a strategic tool against such sanctions, as has been the case in the past.
Andrew Fierman, head of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, noticed that the Maduro regime has historically combined cryptocurrencies with a variety of methods to evade international sanctions.
“Sanctioned regimes typically explore a variety of avenues to evade these restrictions,” Fierman explained.
Venezuelan authorities recently shut down cryptocurrency industry activities, including Bitcoin miningfollowing a corruption scandal involving over a billion dollars linked to the sale of cryptocurrencies and oil.
Despite these crackdowns and the involvement of cryptocurrency monitoring agency Sunacrip, its former boss Joselit Ramirez and other high-ranking ministers, cryptocurrency remains a primary tool for evading sanctions.
Previous investigations, edited by Cryptocurrency news flash and on this occasion by and on this occasion by Chainalysis revealed that transactions exceeding $70 million in cryptocurrencies were conducted by Sunacrip and its associates to streamline operations.
PDVSA, the national oil company, is moving to have a larger share of its transactions settled in USDT, a major stablecoin tied to the US dollar, requiring that more than 50% of the value of each oil shipment be cleared in this digital currency, we reported in more detail previously in the CNF.
Despite these developments, Chainalysis was unable to provide data on the number of seized cryptocurrency transactions related to sanctions evasion activities. This ongoing scenario highlights the complex role of cryptocurrencies in global geopolitical strategies and the challenges in regulating these digital transactions amid international sanctions.