Venezuela's Sunacrip Launches Petro-Based Gift Card Market and Exchange

Sunacrip, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency watchdog, has announced a set of improvements to its Petroapp wallet, allowing Venezuelans to use the petro (PTR) for new functions. The app now has an embedded cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to exchange petros for other currencies, and a series of gift card and payment options to increase adoption.

Petro Relaunch Aims to Offer More Use Cases

Sunacrip, the cryptocurrency regulation institution in Venezuela, has announced a series of changes to its petro (PTR) wallet app called Petroapp, which are directed to improve the usability of the cryptocurrency. Joselit Ramirez, head of Sunacrip, explained these changes and enumerated the new functions on social media.

Ramirez stated:

Having achieved the recovery of the market and the balance of the PTR conversion rates, we have updated the PetroApp where you have new services that strengthen the usability of our sovereign crypto asset.

Ramirez highlighted that the redesign of the Petroapp will allow users to pay for their phone plans with all of the national carriers. Also, the three leading cable operators in the country will be available in the app to accept payments in petros.

Gift Cards, Exchanges, and Payments

The new update also aims to make it easier for people to purchase petros directly from the app, with the possibility of using the national fiat currency to acquire these crypto assets. At the same time, these assets can be used in the app to be exchanged for other supported cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, litecoin, and dash, with the possibility of withdrawing them from the platform, too.

Ramirez explained that Petroapp is also including a payments gateway, allowing users to create payment invoices within the app. The head of Sunacrip stated that this turns “each mobile device into a point of sale and the PTR into a means of payment,” something that the Venezuelan government has pushed for since the launch of the cryptocurrency.

The launch of a gift card market, the last feature announced, seems to go in that direction. The market, according to Ramirez’s statements, will include the possibility of buying gift cards to pay for services like Netflix, which is hugely popular in the country, or making payments on platforms such as Apple Store and Amazon.