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Venezuela
VEschema crypto-v2.0.0trajectory: not yet assessedin transitionoverlaps: FIM, WPM
Last updated · 8 categories · 17 sourced
findings · 22 sources in the cumulative register
8Categoriesbaseline.
17Findings.claims[]
11Tier-1 sourcesrun_metadata.t1_source_count
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Jurisdiction lead brief
Lead Signal
Tether's freeze of approximately 182 million dollars across five Tron-network wallets on 11 January 2026 is this cycle's most consequential Venezuela-linked crypto development. It is Tether's largest single-day freeze to date, and press and blockchain-analytics reporting links the frozen wallets to suspected Venezuelan oil-sanctions-evasion activity, though Tether itself has not confirmed the Venezuela nexus. The freeze lands against a backdrop in which PDVSA has reportedly required USDT for a significant share of oil-revenue settlement since 2023-2024, and in which Venezuela has no statutory issuance-authorisation, reserve, or disclosure regime for stablecoins at all — USDT operates as a de facto parallel settlement and remittance instrument entirely outside any domestic regulatory perimeter. The combination of systemic reliance on an unregulated foreign-issued stablecoin and a demonstrated willingness by that issuer to freeze wallets unilaterally is the structural story here, independent of whether the specific Venezuela sanctions-evasion linkage is ultimately confirmed.
Other Developments
OFAC General License 57, effective 14 April 2026, authorises US-regulated entities to provide financial services, including digital-payment services, in connection with four named Venezuelan state banks. For cross-border transfer specifically, this sits alongside an independently sourced estimate that approximately 9 percent of Venezuela's annual remittances — estimated at 5.4 billion dollars — already route through blockchain or crypto channels, with no Venezuela-specific statutory cross-border reporting threshold identified for crypto transactions. Read together, a meaningful share of Venezuela's cross-border payment activity already moves through crypto rails that sit outside any domestic reporting framework, and GL 57 now adds a parallel, sanctions-adjacent banking channel alongside that pre-existing crypto flow rather than replacing it.
Cross-Monitor Connections
The Tether freeze and PDVSA's reported USDT settlement practice are the same underlying facts tracked by the Financial Integrity Monitor's Crypto / Digital Assets / Financial Innovation domain, which reads them as evidence of stablecoin-issuer active defence against state-linked flows. OFAC General License 57 is the same instrument tracked by the World Payments Monitor's correspondent-banking coverage, which reads it from a payments-market-access lens rather than a digital-asset lens; both readings describe the same primary-source text.
Outlook
Whether Tether's Venezuela linkage is confirmed or walked back, and whether PDVSA's reported USDT reliance for oil-revenue settlement persists, are the two threads most likely to move this assessment next cycle. Separately, whether GL 57's banking channel begins to displace any share of the crypto-routed remittance flow, or instead operates in parallel to it, is the key cross-border-transfer question to watch.
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Venezuela's formal crypto licensing regime derives from the 2019 Constituent Decree on the Integral System of Crypto Assets, which created SUNACRIP (now styled Superintendencia Nacional de Criptoactivos y Actividades Conexas) as the licensing and registration authority for exchanges, miners and other crypto service providers. SUNACRIP's website continues to describe itself as the regulator of natural and legal persons active in the 'Sistema Integral de Criptoactivos' and states exchanges require state licensing ('Casas de Intercambio') and miners require registration/licensing via its Intendencia de Minería Digital. However, the institution was restructured amid a March 2023 corruption scandal in which officials were found to have embezzled billions of dollars via irregular PDVSA oil sales, and reporting indicates the crypto regulator's activity and public-facing output has been irregular since. Following the January 2026 U.S. capture of former President Nicolás Maduro and his transport to the U.S. for prosecution, the political authority underpinning SUNACRIP is itself in flux, so licensing claims below should be treated as textually in-force but operationally uncertain.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (4)
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — Crypto exchanges ('Casas de Intercambio') require a license granted by SUNACRIP to operate in Venezuelan territory, intermediating fiat-to-crypto, crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat operations.retrieved M4bindingin force
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — Digital mining operators must obtain a license/certificate from SUNACRIP's Intendencia de Minería Digital for the import, export, development and usufruct of mining activity in Venezuelan territory.retrieved M4bindingin force
T4 · CoinDeskCoinDesk — SUNACRIP underwent a restructuring following a March 2023 corruption scandal in which officials embezzled an estimated $17.6 billion (2020-2023) via irregular PDVSA oil sales, which materially disrupted the regulator's normal licensing and supervisory operations.retrieved M4non-binding
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — SUNACRIP's official channels (normativa, noticias, registers) show irregular publication activity since 2023, making current currency of any specific licensing decree or register unverifiable without a dated primary-source confirmation.retrieved M3non-bindingour coverage gap, expected to resolve on a re-run
Venezuela's principal statutorily-defined token was the Petro (PTR), a state-issued, oil-reserve-referenced digital currency launched in 2018 under a Constituent Decree approved by the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente for use in national financial activity. The Petro was discontinued as of January 15, 2024, with the government's Patria Platform displaying a shutdown notice and remaining balances converted to bolívares. No successor statutory taxonomy distinguishing security tokens, e-money tokens, asset-referenced tokens, utility tokens or NFTs has been identified in current force; the 2019 Decree uses the generic umbrella term 'criptoactivos' without granular sub-classification.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (2)
T4 · CoinDeskCoinDesk — The Petro was a state-backed, oil-reserve-referenced digital currency launched under a 2018 Constituent Decree; Venezuela ended the Petro cryptocurrency on January 15, 2024, more than five years after launch, with remaining balances converted to bolívares.retrieved M3non-binding
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — No current in-force statutory taxonomy distinguishing security tokens, e-money tokens, asset-referenced tokens, utility tokens or NFTs beyond the generic 'criptoactivos' umbrella term has been identified for Venezuela.retrieved M2non-bindingour coverage gap, expected to resolve on a re-run
Digital mining is the only on-chain activity category with an identified specific regulatory treatment: SUNACRIP's Intendencia de Minería Digital plans, coordinates, promotes and executes digital mining activity, issuing licenses and certificates for importing, exporting, developing and profiting from mining equipment/operations nationally. Historical reporting also describes a mandatory National Digital Mining Pool through which all mining activity had to be channeled, though current operability of that pool post-2023 restructuring is unverified. No specific staking, DeFi lending, DEX, node-operation or validator-specific regime has been identified in force.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (2)
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — Digital mining in Venezuela is regulated by SUNACRIP through its Intendencia de Minería Digital, which grants licenses and certificates governing the import, export, development and exploitation of mining activities nationally.retrieved M4bindingin force
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — No specific staking, DeFi lending, DEX or validator-operation regulatory regime has been identified as currently in force for Venezuela.retrieved M2non-bindingour coverage gap, expected to resolve on a re-run
Venezuela's only stablecoin-adjacent instrument was the Petro, a state-issued token nominally referenced to oil reserves and authorized directly by the executive/ANC rather than through an independent issuance-authorization process resembling e-money/ART frameworks elsewhere. The Petro was discontinued on January 15, 2024. U.S. Executive Order 13827 (March 19, 2018) separately prohibits U.S. persons from any transactions, financing or other dealings in any digital currency, coin or token issued by or for the Government of Venezuela, including the Petro — a prohibition that as a matter of U.S. law remains on the books irrespective of the Petro's domestic discontinuation. No current domestic reserve, redemption or disclosure regime for privately issued stablecoins has been identified.
Standing sub-brief254 words · last cycle 2026-08-21
Stablecoin Regime
Venezuela has no statutory issuance-authorisation, reserve, or disclosure regime for stablecoins. In the absence of any domestic framework, USDT functions as a de facto parallel settlement and remittance instrument, filling a role that in a regulated market would typically sit within a supervised stablecoin or e-money framework. This gap sits alongside evidence that PDVSA has required USDT for a significant share of oil-revenue settlement since 2023-2024, meaning a foreign-issued, privately-controlled stablecoin has become embedded in a systemically important segment of the Venezuelan economy without any corresponding domestic oversight, reserve requirement, or disclosure obligation attaching to it.
This cycle's major development compounds that structural gap: on 11 January 2026, Tether froze approximately 182 million dollars across five Tron-network wallets — its largest single-day freeze to date — amid suspicion of ties to Venezuelan oil-sanctions-evasion flows. The Venezuela linkage is not confirmed by Tether itself and rests on press and blockchain-analytics reporting rather than primary sourcing, a material caveat. What the event demonstrates regardless of the specific linkage is that the issuer, not any Venezuelan regulator, holds practical freezing power over the instrument that has become central to the country's dollarised and oil-revenue-adjacent settlement activity — an enforcement asymmetry with no domestic statutory counterpart.
Outlook
Whether Venezuela moves to construct any domestic stablecoin-adjacent oversight framework, or whether USDT's role continues to expand by default in the absence of one, is the central question for this module. The Tether freeze's confirmed connection, or lack of one, to Venezuela specifically is the near-term fact to watch.
No new data since the standing brief. 1 periodic run re-emitted it unchanged.
Sources and findings (2)
T1 · Banco Central de VenezuelaBanco Central de Venezuela — The Petro was authorized for use in Venezuela's financial activity via a Constituent Decree approved by the Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, establishing the bases for handling digital assets, with the stated purpose of enabling crypto use to overcome the effects of the U.S. financial blockade on the nation.retrieved M3non-binding
T4 · CoinDeskCoinDesk — Venezuela ended the Petro cryptocurrency on January 15, 2024, with remaining Petro balances converted to bolívares, terminating the only domestic stablecoin-type redemption mechanism.retrieved M3non-binding
The 2019 Decree and SUNACRIP's exchange-licensing framework are stated to exist in part to provide 'the necessary safeguard of user rights' by requiring licensed intermediation of crypto-fiat operations. Beyond this general statement, no specific marketing-restriction, custody-segregation, complaint-handling or suitability regime tailored to crypto consumers has been identified, and the practical enforceability of even the stated safeguard is doubtful given SUNACRIP's post-2023 institutional disruption.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (1)
T1 · SUNACRIPSUNACRIP — SUNACRIP's exchange licensing regime is described as seeking to provide a regulatory and administrative infrastructure affording 'the necessary safeguard of user rights' for persons using licensed exchange intermediaries.retrieved M3bindingin force
No crypto-specific capital gains, income tax, VAT/GST, withholding or reporting-obligation rule issued by SENIAT (Venezuela's national tax administration) has been located in this research pass. General tax administration context (SENIAT's role in income tax and VAT enforcement) is documented, but no crypto-specific SENIAT circular, resolution or gazette instrument was found; this module is emitted with an explicit gap rather than a fabricated obligation.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (1)
T1 · Banco Central de VenezuelaBanco Central de Venezuela — No crypto-specific income tax, capital gains, VAT/GST or withholding instrument issued by SENIAT has been identified as currently in force for crypto-asset transactions in Venezuela.retrieved M3non-bindingour coverage gap, expected to resolve on a re-run
Cross-border crypto activity involving Venezuela is dominated by the U.S. sanctions regime rather than by domestic Venezuelan law. U.S. Executive Order 13827 (March 19, 2018) prohibits U.S. persons from any transactions in digital currency, coin or token issued by or for the Government of Venezuela, including the Petro. Following the January 3, 2026 U.S. military capture and transport of former President Nicolás Maduro to the U.S. for prosecution on drug-trafficking and related charges (Operation Absolute Resolve), the sanctions landscape began shifting: OFAC issued General Licenses 60 and 57 in 2026, and on July 27, 2026 FinCEN issued a statement of enforcement policy supporting economic recovery and earthquake-relief efforts in Venezuela, signaling a partial, still-evolving normalization of financial-institution engagement. Venezuela also remains on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring as of February 13, 2026, reflecting unresolved strategic AML/CFT/proliferation-financing deficiencies with direct bearing on cross-border risk screening.
Standing sub-brief203 words · last cycle 2026-08-21
Cross-Border Transfer
OFAC General License 57, a Tier-1-sourced and confirmed instrument effective 14 April 2026, authorises US-regulated entities to provide financial services, including digital-payment services, in connection with four named Venezuelan state banks. This is the clearest in-force statutory development in this module this cycle, and it sits within the sanctions-regulation framework at 31 CFR Part 591 rather than within any Venezuela-domestic crypto-specific cross-border rule.
Independently, industry reporting estimates that approximately 9 percent of Venezuela's annual remittances — on the order of 5.4 billion dollars — already route through blockchain or crypto channels. No Venezuela-specific statutory cross-border reporting threshold for crypto transactions was identified this cycle, meaning this substantial remittance flow currently moves without a domestic crypto-specific reporting floor attaching to it. The two findings describe different layers of the same corridor: GL 57 addresses a narrow, bank-channel, sanctions-adjacent opening, while the remittance estimate describes a much larger, pre-existing, and largely unregulated crypto-native flow that GL 57 does not appear to touch directly.
Outlook
Whether GL 57's new banking channel captures any share of the crypto-routed remittance flow, or whether the two channels continue to operate in parallel without a domestic statutory bridge between them, is the key development to watch next cycle.
No new data since the standing brief. 1 periodic run re-emitted it unchanged.
Sources and findings (4)
T1 · FinCEN / U.S. TreasuryFinCEN / U.S. Treasury — U.S. Executive Order 13827, issued March 19, 2018, prohibits a United States person from engaging in any transactions related to, providing financing for, or other dealings in, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token issued by, for, or on behalf of the Government of Venezuela, including the Petro.retrieved M5bindingin force
T1 · FinCEN / U.S. TreasuryFinCEN / U.S. Treasury — Following the January 3, 2026 capture of former President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces and his transport to the U.S. for prosecution on drug-trafficking and related charges, OFAC issued multiple sanctions-related authorizations in 2026, including General License 60 (GL 60) and General License 57 (GL 57), intended to support economic recovery and earthquake-relief efforts in Venezuela.retrieved M5bindingin force
T1 · CFTCCFTC — The U.S. carried out a military operation ('Operation Absolute Resolve') that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the early morning hours of January 3, 2026, transporting them to the United States, where both were indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug-trafficking and weapons charges.retrieved M4non-binding
T1 · FATFFATF — Venezuela remains identified by the FATF as a jurisdiction under increased monitoring as of the February 13, 2026 plenary outcomes, reflecting unresolved strategic deficiencies in its AML/CFT/proliferation-financing regime with direct relevance to cross-border transaction risk screening.retrieved M4bindingin force
Crypto AML/CFT obligations are subscribed from the FIM module and are not produced as baseline claims in this evidence set per module-subscription doctrine. For disambiguation context only: Venezuela's CFATF Mutual Evaluation identifies SUNACRIP as the supervisory authority for the virtual-assets sector for AML/CFT purposes, working alongside SUDEBAN, SUDEASEG, the Central Bank of Venezuela and the UNIF (financial intelligence unit); Venezuela remains on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring as of February 13, 2026.
Absence reason not determinableNo sub-brief exists and the JID records no gap or review marker explaining why. The renderer will not invent a reason.
no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief
Sources and findings (1)
T2 · CFATFCFATF — AML/CFT content for crypto is out of scope for this baseline and is subscribed from the FIM consumer's aml_ctf module; no claims are produced here.retrieved M1non-bindinga fact about the regime
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Editorial metadata for Venezuela
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