The reorganization of Venezuela’s National Superintendency of Crypto Assets (Sunacrip), which officially ended operations in March 2023, has been given a six-month extension, according to the government. The choice was decided by President Nicolás Maduro and announced on September 19 in a presidential order. Beginning on September 17, the next extended period will continue until March 24, 2024.
Following a corruption scandal involving its previous top management that resulted in the arrest of at least ten people, including its leader Joselit Ramirez Camacho, Sunacrip was shut down in March 2023. Ramirez was charged by Venezuelan prosecutors with stealing more than $3 million from the government while working at Sunacrip.
The regulatory body’s closure created havoc in Venezuela’s cryptocurrency market, which is tightly linked to the government and has been utilized to get over financial restrictions imposed by the United States. As a result, numerous states closed down their crypto mining operations, and some crypto exchanges were told to stop running.
Sunacrip, which was founded in 2018, was in charge of regulating all commercial activity involving cryptocurrencies in Venezuela, including the production, emission, transfer, marketing, and exchange of all crypto assets. The nation introduced the oil-backed cryptocurrency Petro in 2018. Its purported dissolution was scheduled for the summer of 2023, yet its official website was still operational at the time of writing.
