Russian start-up project Zeus, an online exchange platform, aided Venezuela in setting up their national cryptocurrency Petro, Sputnik quotes president of the Osnova company Alexander Ruchyev as saying.
"One of our startups, Zeus, helped Venezuela issue a national cryptocurrency. The release of the cryptocurrency means the creation of a stock exchange, an ecosystem. It helped create this ecosystem,” Ruchyev told journalists.
"It [startup] went through the Smart Valley platform, we invested in it, and it is now actively developing in the world,” the company’s president went on to say.
The online exchange platform, Zeus, makes it possible to buy and sell shares of the world's largest companies for cryptocurrency.
Zeus is connected to US exchanges under a contract with a brokerage company. The project was selected on the Smart Valley platform and received an investment deal for development from Osnova company.
Venezuela launched the pre-sale of the world’s first national, oil-backed cryptocurrency, the Petro on February 20. At the time, President Nicolas Maduro said that the volume of pre-sales of the Petro reached $735 million.
Nicolas Maduro latter announced plans to launch a second cryptocurrency called Petro Gold to be backed by the precious metal.