Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has announced that the sale of the country’s Petro cryptocurrency sale has raised $735 million in the first day itself, CoinDesk reported.

“We are in the technological and economic vanguard to overcome the speculation of international currencies that affect the lives of Venezuelans. The Petro reaffirms our economic sovereignty,” Maduro added.

The presale kicked off on Tuesday, February 20, and is scheduled to run till March. The government has not disclosed any further details including the pre-sale participants.

According to an online post on the government website, the Minister of Popular Power for University Education, Science and Technology, Hugbel Roa said that each Petro will be equivalent to one barrel of oil, according to the fixed price of the Venezuelan basket in the international market. Roa also said that “the traffic to the web portal http://elpetro.gob.ve quintupled with the global announcement of the pre-sale of the Venezuelan [cryptocurrency]".

“The Venezuelan cryptocurrency will be redeemable for fiduciary money and other crypto-assets through digital exchange houses. Its price will be associated with that of the Venezuelan crude oil basket, because the State will accept the payment of taxes, obligations, taxes, contributions and national public services in Petro,” according to an online post.

CoinDesk highlighted some of the contradictory details regarding the token – while one documents talks about Ethereum network, another cites NEM blockchain.

“We are going to rehearse, experiment, project new forms of monetary and commercial exchange, through the Petro and all the cryptocurrencies of the whole world, through the Nem Platform…,” Maduro said in a statement.