The Venezuelan Parliament, run by the opposition, voted on Tuesday to declare Nicolas Maduro’s plan to issue an oil-backed cryptocurrency—the Petro—illegal, claiming that it violates the constitution and attempts to mortgage part of the country’s oil reserves. Since losing majority in the National Assembly in 2016, Maduro has been ignoring the legislature, and the pro-government Supreme Court has overturned almost every measure that the opposition-dominated parliament has passed since then. In a July 2017 election boycotted by the opposition, Venezuela elected the Constituent Assembly, which triggered the stricter sanctions that the U.S. slapped on the country in August, including prohibiting U.S. persons or companies from participating in the new debt issued by Venezuela or its state oil firm PDVSA. In early December, Maduro shocked both analysts who follow the country’s flirting with default and the cryptocurrency community by announcing that Venezuela was planning to launch the petro cryptocurrency, backed […]