Venezuelan President Announces Handing Out Of $3.6M In Petro Tokens

The central government in Venezuela will be handing out a total of $543,700 worth of the state-run and oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency to each of the country’s 23 states on a bi-monthly basis. The big cryptocurrency news was confirmed by the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a televised address.

As Maduro stated, he would personally oversee the handout of 1 million Petro tokens ($23,640 each) to the country’s federal state governments every eight weeks – in an attempt to boost the use of the oil-backed token.

“Additional Petro resources” would also be handed out to local governments as of next month, making for a total payout worth between $1.5 million and $3.6 million USD. The Venezuelan President said this but did not specify a time period for the initiative. He also did not mention how long the payout period would last.

The president of Venezuela also said that he states would be free to use the tokens however they see fit – saying that the move would help with the “mass adoption” of the Petro token.

On Twitter, the altcoin news featured a lot of users pointing out the potential flaws in the plan of the Venezuelan President. According to one economics analyst, Petro’s white paper shows that only 100 million Petro tokens are currently in circulation. If the government pushes ahead with its plan, it would end up issuing more than that amount in only a matter of months – which is not logical at all.

We don’t know if Maduro has calculated the figures or made mistakes with his calculations. However, the Venezuelan PResident is still forging away with his crypto plans. Earlier this year, he said that he was also assigning Petro funds to state-backed agricultural and industrial projects.

At the time, Maduro claimed that the funds will be used to “buy supplies and raw materials” that the country is struggling to purchase due to the US-led economic sanctions. He also noted that he would be assigning “USD 2 million worth of Petro tokens” to a joint project with China.

Meanwhile, Petro payments are officially in – as big news from the country show – and more than 93 stores officially accept the country-issued and oil-backed cryptocurrency.