Venezuelan Petro Blockchain Faces Operational Difficulties, Hundreds of Wallets Allegedly Blocked

The blockchain of the petro, the Venezuelan official cryptocurrency asset, has been facing difficulties, halting on May 24, with block production restarting on May 27 only to stop again on May 28. Asonacrip, a local cryptocurrency association, also reported that hundreds of petro wallets were eliminated or blocked.

Venezuelan Petro Blockchain Halted

The blockchain of the petro, the official Venezuelan cryptocurrency, has allegedly been facing operational problems since last week. Asonacrip, a private association of crypto enthusiasts, issued a statement warning about the issue, stating that the Petro chain had stopped its block generation on May 24, affecting the functionality of the cryptocurrency asset.

In a joint statement with Cryptoland.vzla, a crypto education-focused group, Asonacrip stated:

Last Wednesday (May 24) at 07:00 in the morning, suddenly and without warning, the Petro Blockchain was paralyzed, making transactions between different wallets impossible.

However, the Petro blockchain started to produce blocks again on May 27, when it issued just four blocks before halting again on May 28.

Hundreds of Wallets Blocked

The joint statement also alerted about a massive block and elimination of petro wallets, which occurred when the chain was first halted. On this, the joint statement explains:

A few hours later, also without warning, accounts of already hundreds of users of the PATRIA platform were blocked and deleted, most of them belonging to active members of this community.

Mario Silva, a Venezuelan journalist and deputy of the Venezuelan Legislative Assembly, also alerted about the issue via social networks about a possible exploit, stating that many users had their wallets blocked with no explanation.

Other reports stated that withdrawals in fiat currency were also blocked since the intervention of Sunacrip, more than two months ago. At the time of writing, neither Sunacrip nor the petro official support account has given updates on the problems reported.

Sunacrip, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency watchdog, is under the temporary management of an intervention board after its head, Joselit Ramirez, was arrested for alleged participation in a multi-billion dollar crypto corruption scheme.

Also, as a result of this ongoing investigation, Bitcoin miners that had legally registered their companies with the institution have been required to halt operations until further notice since March 24. This has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for the sector.