Venezuelan authorities ordered a halt to cryptocurrency mining back in April, at the same time as they launched an investigation into a major corruption scheme in which cryptocurrencies were allegedly used to redirect payments owed to state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela.
The investigation has been ongoing for the third month, while a possible date for the lifting of the ban on cryptocurrency mining by the state remains uncertain.
Venezuelan media write, citing representatives of national mining companies, that more than 75,000 pieces of equipment are now disabled. For comparison, about that much is owned by one of the largest mining companies in the world, Riot Platforms.
Venezuelan law enforcement agencies have begun checking mining companies to find out if the funds used to purchase equipment were obtained from sources associated with corruption in the oil industry.
“It’s unfortunate that after solving so many problems with formalization and regulations, we ended up in such a sad situation,” said Alexis Lugo, head of the educational project Criptoneros.
Against the backdrop of the uncertainty of the future, experiencing an acute shortage of funds to maintain business, mining companies are forced to cease operations and declare liquidation.
Another blow to the confidence of the Venezuelan authorities in the cryptocurrency industry was the fact that almost simultaneously with the start of the investigation of the Petroleos de Venezuela case, the largest bank Banco de Venezuela fell victim to an attack by an encryption program extorting a ransom in cryptocurrency for decryption and restoration of access to data.
Source: Bits
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