Venezuela's New Cryptocurrency Is 'Dead on Arrival'
*By Amanda Weston*
Faced with a financial crisis, Venezuela has turned to cryptocurrency to fight rising inflation. But Eduardo Gómez, head of support at [Purse](https://purse.io/shop), said it may not be the best solution.
"The Venezuelan government is really now in a desperate situation," Gómez said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar. "They're trying to get cash. They're trying to get money from international markets, and due to the U.S. sanctions, they're not able to do so."
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro outlined policies for the new digital currency, the petro, last Friday. One unit would equal the price of one barrel of oil, about $60 dollars, effectively devaluing the nation's existing currency, the bolivar, [by 96 percent](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-currency/maduro-orders-96-percent-devaluation-in-hyperinflation-stricken-venezuela-idUSKBN1L22EZ).
Gómez said the government is trying to minimize the impact of economic sanctions from the U.S. It's an understandable priority ー The International Monetary Fund [estimates](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/07/23/outlook-for-the-americas-a-tougher-recovery/) inflation in Venezuela will reach 1 million percent this year. But Gómez said success for the latest petro strategy is highly unlikely.
"So far it has been a total failure," he said. "There's no real token out there. There's no real system in place. The technology has not been created yet. As, of now, it looks very bad for the government."
Venezuela's own parliament [believes](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/20/venezuela-is-pegging-its-economic-recovery-to-a-cryptocurrency--thats-widely-considered-a-scam.html) petro is being used illegally, and ICOindex has [labeled the currency a scam](https://icoindex.com/profile/petro-ptr).
Among the other moves announced by Maduro: raising the corporate tax rate, increasing previously-subsidized gas prices, and hiking the minimum wage by 3,000 percent.
Gómez pointed out that the current minimum wage, on which 70 percent of Venezuelans live, is about $1 per month. Such a low salary is the biggest hurdle for cryptocurrency adoption, Gómez said, since so many residents have barely any savings.
"Pretty much, petro is dead on arrival, as of now," Gómez said.
For full interview, [click here] (https://cheddar.com/videos/venezuela-looks-to-cryptocurrency-amid-financial-crisis).
Facebook parent Meta’s miss on Q4 earnings raised alarm bells amongst investors. The tech giant lost users for the first time as it invests a lot into the metaverse, its virtual realm, in the hopes that consumers will move their social media consumption there. The stock dropped around 25 percent on the report, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg chalked it up to people flocking toward apps like TikTok, even as his own platform attempts to make a big pivot to the metaverse future. "It's gonna take a long time to develop and it's gonna take a long time to bring to fruition," Rebecca Walser, president of Walser Wealth Management told Cheddar. "In the meantime, the world is moving on. We have a very short attention span, especially on social media, and we want the short little videos. And Tiktok has just taken off."
Just this week, Facebook's parent company Meta released an update for its 3D avatar creation on Facebook and messenger. This update is encouraging users of Instagram to create their virtual selves, and it is an early step towards making the metaverse vision a reality. David Ewalt, editor-in-chief at Gizmodo joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Ed Butowsky, managing partner at Chapwood Investments, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the disappointing takeaways from Spotify's Q4 earnings report, which sent the stock plunging.
Google parent company Alphabet saw yet another successful quarter reporting its final earnings report for 2021 on Tuesday. The tech giant beat Wall Street expectations across the board with much of that success owed to not only the growth of its cloud business, but also its multi-platform advertising. Joanna O'Connell, Principal Analyst at Forrester explains why advertising may be one of the keys to Alphabet’s future success.
Solid-state battery maker Factorial Energy recently raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Factorial says the funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of its solid-state battery technology, which the company says is safer, and offers up to 50% more driving range than current lithium-ion technology. Factorial also has joint development agreements (announced in late 2021) with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai, three of the top 10 global automotive manufacturers, to commercialize its batteries. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Google's parent company Alphabet reported blockbuster fourth quarter earnings, boosted by better-than-expected Google ad revenue and Google Cloud revenue. The results sent Alphabet's stock soaring, and the company could come close to hitting a $2 trillion market valuation similar to other tech giants Apple and Microsoft. The company also announced a 20-for-1 stock split, which would make shares more accessible to would-be investors. Mark Lehmann, CEO at JMP Securities, a Citizens Company, joins Closing Bell to discuss Alphabet's earnings report, whether the company will reach a $2 trillion market cap, its stock split, and more.
