VENEZUELA-POLITICS-MADURO-PETRO

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (C) delivers a speach next to Vice-President Tarek El Aissami (L) next to Venezuela's Minister of Science, Technology and University Education Hugbel Roa (R) during a press conference to launch to the market a new oil-backed cryptocurrency called "Petro", at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, on February 20. Venezuela formally launched its new oil-backed cryptocurrency on Tuesday in an unconventional bid to haul itself out of a deepening economic crisis. The leftist Caracas government put 38.4 million units of the world's first state-backed digital currency, the Petro, on private pre-sale from the early hours. A total of 100 million Petros will go on sale, with an initial value set at $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuelan crude in mid-January. Venezuela formally launched its new oil-backed cryptocurrency on Tuesday in an unconventional bid to haul itself out of a deepening economic crisis. The leftist Caracas government put 38.4 million units of the world's first state-backed digital currency, the Petro, on private pre-sale from the early hours. A total of 100 million Petros will go on sale, with an initial value set at $60, based on the price of a barrel of Venezuelan crude in mid-January. / AFP PHOTO / FEDERICO PARRA (Photo credit should read FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via Getty Images)