Venezuela Announces Reorganization of National Crypto Body
- The national crypto body of Venezuela, known as Sunacrip in Spanish, is being reorganized by President Nicolás Maduro.
- According to the official decree, the reorganization will place a new board to lead the national crypto body under Anabel Pereira Fernández.
- Héctor Andrés Obregón Pérez, Luis Alberto Pérez González, and Julio César Mora Sánchez will be serving as the other members of the new board.
- This new board will not include Joselit Ramirez, the person responsible for leading the department since 2018.
The presence of a distinct regulatory department for the proper regulation of crypto assets has become quite important over the years, as the entire market was once worth more than $3 trillion, while it is currently worth more than $1 trillion. Interestingly, the national crypto body of Venezuela, the National Superintendency of Crypto Assets, known as Sunacrip in Spanish, has been reorganized as per an announcement from the President of the country, Nicolás Maduro.
As per the announcement from Maduro, the reorganization will place a new board to lead the national crypto body of Venezuela under the leadership of Anabel Pereira Fernández, a lawyer who served as president of the Fondo de Garantía de Depositos y Protección Bancaria (FOGADE), an agency which can be compared to the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
The decree was issued on March 17 and it is crucial to note that Héctor Andrés Obregón Pérez, Luis Alberto Pérez González, and Julio César Mora Sánchez will be serving as the other members of the new board. Moreover, Sunacrip confirmed the establishment of the Sunacrip Restructuring Body via its official account on the social media platform Twitter.
On the other hand, the reasons for the restructure were not made clear to the public, and it was also confirmed that the new body will decide the rules and policies of the national crypto body of Venezuela. However, the Maduro administration made it clear to the citizens that the move was being taken to protect the investors in cryptocurrencies from the negative effects of economic sanctions, among other things.
Interestingly, this new board will not include Joselit Ramirez, the person responsible for leading the department since 2018, when the popularity of blockchain-based assets was still on the rise. It is crucial to note that Ramirez was arrested on March 17 on charges of corruption, and as per the local media in Venezuela, Ramirez was responsible for overseeing crypto tax rules and the country’s cryptocurrency, Petro.
Furthermore, Ramirez was added to the Most Wanted List by the United States in 2020, and the Homeland Security Investigations branch of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency issued a bounty for up to $5 million for any crucial information on him. The authorities claim that Ramirez Camacho has “deep political, social, and economic ties” to suspected narcotic kingpins. Interestingly, one of these kingpins is Tareck El Aissami, who is also the former Vice President of Venezuela.
Ramirez had the lowest bounty when compared to his aliases, including $15 million for information on the capture of the country’s head, Nicolás Maduro, while several other high ranking officials, like El Aissami, had $10 million bounties.
As reported earlier by BitcoinWisdom, Bitstamp CEO Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, also known as JB in the crypto space, pointed out that the rate of crypto adoption in Latin America, led by Venezuela, is rising due to the prevailing economic crisis sparked by increasing inflation in the region.
“I think in Latin America we see massive adoption. Even if the regulatory framework is not necessarily in place and the level of education is not as high as we would like, we see massive adoption because of macroeconomic challenges that exist in Latin America,” he added.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
