Writing by: Xiao Bing | Deep Tide TechFlow
On January 3, 2026, the US military launched a "large-scale" attack on Venezuela, and President Maduro was swiftly arrested and transferred.
Someone commented, "The one who issued a Memecoin has been arrested, while the issuer of RWA Token remains free."
Indeed, this is the case.
On February 20, 2018, Venezuelan President Maduro announced the issuance of the world's first sovereign-backed digital currency, Petro, during a televised speech.
At that time, Venezuela was in the midst of its most severe economic crisis in history, with inflation soaring to nearly 1,000,000% (you read that right), and the national currency, the Bolivar, was depreciating like worthless paper. US sanctions further worsened the situation for this South American oil-rich country.
Maduro hoped that this digital currency could be the last straw to save the nation.