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Venezuela's national cryptocurrency, the Petro is set to cease operations on January 15. The Petro was launched as an oil-backed cryptocurrency in 2018 with the goal of helping the country evade U.S. sanctions, but it failed to gain widespread adoption throughout its existence. Domestically, the Petro was never declared legal tender, meaning that its acceptance was not mandatory. the Petro was not a central bank digital currency (CBDC), despite speculation in 2019 that the central bank would create one.

Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro announced that the Christmas bonus of the country's retirees and pensioners will be paid to them in the national cryptocurrency Petro.

Venezuela President Maduro announced that next week there will be an airdrop of 0.5 PTR ($30) to eligible citizens who register with the Petro App.

According to the Venezuelan government, millions of families have used the petro, the country's national digital currency, to pay for goods and services. As shoppers rush to spend their coins, merchants are reportedly struggling, effectively forced to sell goods at a deep discount. At least one merchant is said to have been arrested.

The VERDAD Act (Senate Bill 1025) will ban US citizens, permanent residents and organizations from buying, holding, trading or spending the Venezualan Petro. The implications for this could be huge because any crypto-asset could be inserted into this language.

Evading sanctions, internal monitoring and dealing with cash shortages...

Here's a CBDC Tracker covers similar territory. The main difference is that it includes wholesale CBDC and some initial sovereign offerings (ISOs) such as the Marshall Islands SOV and Venezuelan Petro. Also it includes projects that are arguably simply central bank run blockchain-based payment rails (eg Cambodia's Project Inthanon). Finally, as far as I can tell, the tabulation doesn't include links to the official (or unofficial) sources of the information. But, on the other hand, it includes some useful information that doesn't fit my more compact presentation, like announcement date, status, technology, and programmability.

The Colombian government is reportedly planning to launch a digital currency to curb tax evasion and enhance the traceability of citizens' transactions, according to Luis Carlos Reyes, head of Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (DIAN), the country's tax authority.