Hardly a surprise - when Venezuela launched their official national cryptocurrency the 'petro' last month, they openly admitted their goal was to use it to bypass international sanctions.

In response today, the Trump administration has released an executive order to make sure the cryptocurrency is included in the sanction as well. Stating;

"All transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token, that was issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela on or after January 9, 2018, are prohibited as of the effective date of this order."

Thankfully, the cryptocurrency world never embraced the Petro, which is going through problems internally within Venezuela as well, as it's congress has labeled it 'illegal' and 'unconstitutional'.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro however is claiming the project has been a massive success - and has claimed various amounts were raised, anywhere between $735 million and $5 billion - the actual amount is still unknown and expected to be much lower.