On July 29th, according to CoinDesk, Venezuela's electoral body announced that Nicolas Maduro (Nicolas Maduro) was re-elected as president, although the opposition also claimed victory. Venezuela's dependence on cryptocurrencies stems from the dire economic situation, international sanctions and the flight of nearly 8 million citizens from the country in the past decade. In 2023, Venezuela received more than $461 million in remittances through cryptocurrencies. Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA had tried to circumvent U.S. sanctions through Tether (USDT), but in January, Venezuela terminated the five-year-old Petro cryptocurrency. Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, expressed grave concern about the results, which showed Maduro with 51 per cent of the vote, compared with 44 per cent for opposition candidate Edmundo González, while US senator Marco Rubio called it "the most predictable and absurd sham election in modern history".