Venezuela seeks to bypass sanctions using Tether

The country could increasingly rely on cryptocurrencies to secure revenue from oil and gas exports. The tool of choice: the USDT stablecoin.

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA plans to rely increasingly on cryptocurrencies in the future to facilitate oil exports. This was reported by Reuters.

The announcement follows the resumption of U.S. sanctions against the country. On April 17, the U.S. government released the temporary easing of the oil embargo expire.

PDVSA should therefore now turn to the stablecoin Tether (USDT), for example, to secure income from oil exports. And to protect themselves from freezing foreign bank accounts.

Meanwhile, the stablecoin provider has already been discredited for helping to circumvent sanctions against Russia. This was reported a few weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal.

Reuters also reports that the use of cryptocurrencies for oil trading is still "unusual." Therefore, according to one trader, Venezuela must rely on "intermediaries" to enable USDT trading.

Following the introduction of sanctions in 2018, Venezuela first experimented with cryptocurrencies for oil exports. However, the adoption of the digital currency known as "Petro" failed, leading the country to recently scrap the attempt.