Venezuelan retailers fed up with petro cryptocurrency after major delays

The former president of Consecomercio, a Venezuelan business association, lashed out against the state-backed petro “cryptocurrency” last week, calling it a “scam” after thousands of retailers faced major delays in liquidity from the Bank of Venezuela, according to local news outlet Tal Cual.

Retailers have been struggling for weeks to receive bolivars, the national currency, from the Bank of Venezuela in exchange for the Petro payments retailers collected from consumers. Since their suppliers don’t accept Petro, retailers without bolivars can’t restock their shelves.

To make matters worse, Venezuela suffers from one of the worst inflation rates in the world, according to the IMF, so the delay in converting Petros to bolivars cause merchants to receive bolivars at a highly diminished value from when they first received payment.

“Petro is a scam for the merchant, because certainly what he could do with that money at the beginning of the year is not the same as what he can do…