Venezuela could hold BTC and ETH in its international reserves

The Central Bank of Venezuela is exploring whether to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum in its international reserves.

The cryptocurrencies would be used to circumvent international sanctions and pay state-run oil company debts, the report revealed.

After international sanctions were imposed on the country following the 2017 protests, Venezuela has been trying to find ways.

That the country's central bank is currently "Running internal tests" to determine whether it can hold cryptocurrencies in its national reserves.

The company is reportedly looking to send their crypto reserves to the central bank and have it pay its suppliers with Bitcoin and Ethereum.

That the central bank was also studying proposals that would allow cryptocurrencies to be counted toward international reserves.

The country has seen its foreign-currency reserves drop to a 30 year low and are estimated to be at around $7.9 billion.

Towards the end of the year, the reserves began plummeting and have reached their current level at the beginning of 2019.

While using cryptocurrencies to pay suppliers would let Venezuela circumvent international banking sanctions, finding companies that would accept payments in crypto will be hard.

The country could use a crypto exchange or an OTC trading desk to exchange its Bitcoin and Ethereum reserves into fiat, but it would require complying with extensive KYC and AML regulations.