According to Odaily Planet Daily, three people familiar with the matter revealed that as the United States re-imposes oil sanctions on Venezuela, Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA plans to increase the use of digital currency in crude oil and fuel exports.

The U.S. Treasury Department last week gave PDVSA’s customers and suppliers until May 31 to end transactions, a move that will make it harder for Venezuela to increase oil production and exports because companies will have to wait for individual U.S. authorizations to do business with Venezuela.

PDVSA has been slowly moving to accept USDT, or Tether, in oil sales since last year. The reinstatement of oil sanctions is accelerating the shift, people familiar with the matter said, as a move to reduce the risk of sales revenue being frozen in foreign bank accounts due to sanctions.