A behind-the-scenes account on the creation of Petro, Venezuela's oil-backed cryptocurrency, whose author fled the country after becoming subject to persecution
a high-stakes cryptocurrency tale about an idealist who agreed to create a digital coin for the dictator of Venezuela. https://www.nytimes.com/... Nathaniel Popper / @nathanielpopper : This is the first time Jimenez has told his story. Even in the topsy-turvy world of crypto, I can't think of anyone who's had a wilder ride. It's a singular look at the toxic intersection of fringe finance and a failing dictatorship. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The NYT's account inverts that frame by putting a person at the center: Jimenez, the idealist who agreed to build the coin, and who has now spoken for the first time after fleeing persecution. Read against later reporting that Venezuela's government now manages its downturn through stablecoins like USDT, his story documents how the state's crypto experiment actually felt from inside.
First-order effects
Jimenez's firsthand account reframes the petro's 2018 launch from a monetary policy story into a coercion story — the coin's own creator became a target of the government he built it for.
The report gives journalists and researchers named sourcing on how the petro was created, hardening the record against the government's framing of the token as a legitimate oil-backed asset.
Second-order effects
Every future state-backed token pitch inherits the petro's reputation problem: the pegging scheme that showed no transaction activity and a creator in exile become the cautionary template opponents cite.
The contrast with Venezuela's working crypto rails — stablecoins like USDT used to collect oil payments from China — sharpens the distinction between politically manufactured coins and organic dollar-pegged adoption.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, sovereign crypto issuance splits into two tracks: engineered national coins like the petro that fail on usage, and de facto dollarization through stablecoins that governments adopt out of necessity — with the legitimacy gap between them defining how regulators and markets treat state crypto projects.
The persecution of the petro's creator becomes part of the case file for treating state crypto ventures as instruments of failing regimes rather than financial innovation, feeding into sanctions and AML debates around government-issued tokens.
The trend: State-issued cryptocurrencies are collapsing into a legitimacy gap — engineered coins like the petro fail on adoption while failing states quietly dollarize through stablecoins — and insider accounts like Jimenez's are becoming the record that defines them.
Great @nytimes piece on hellish arc endured by a Venezuelan cryptocurrency creator. Shows, among other things, the extent to which Venezuelan govt, still the darling of some deluded western leftists, has become a cruel, despotic & corrupt drugged-up junta https://www.nytimes.com/…
The Coder and the Dictator Gabriel Jiménez hated the Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. But he loved cryptocurrency. When he built the regime a digital coin, he nearly paid with his life. https://www.nytimes.com/... via @nytimes @nathanielpopper @AnaVHerrero https://twitter.com…
The years 2017 and 2018 were full of drama for everyone in the cryptocurrency world, as billion-dollar fortunes were made and lost. But perhaps no one had as perilous a ride as Gabriel Jiménez. https://www.nytimes.com/...
How does a colaboracionist become a kind of hero? I think that @GabrielJimenezM is just trying to wash his face, as many other people here in Venezuela, but he was full aware of what he was trying to achieve: money. Not freedom for the people, not fight the regime: money. https:/…
Its been a long time coming and I am happy to finally have my story told to the world. After one year of investigation, @nathanielpopper and @AnaVHerrero have published the story of my involvement with the Petro in the @nytimes I invite everyone to read it https://www.nytimes.com…
“The Coder and the Dictator: Gabriel Jiménez hated the Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. But he loved cryptocurrency. When he built the regime a digital coin, he nearly paid with his life.” by @nathanielpopper and @AnaVHerrero via @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/...
A masterpiece from @nathanielpopper ... “This was my mission and my gamble, in a bet that ended costing everything I had in my life: my friends, my partners, my reputation, my love, my company and my country.” ~ @GabrielJimenezM https://www.nytimes.com/...
I've been chasing this story for months. Hope you'll take a virus break and read it — a high-stakes cryptocurrency tale about an idealist who agreed to create a digital coin for the dictator of Venezuela. https://www.nytimes.com/...
This is the first time Jimenez has told his story. Even in the topsy-turvy world of crypto, I can't think of anyone who's had a wilder ride. It's a singular look at the toxic intersection of fringe finance and a failing dictatorship. https://www.nytimes.com/...