Venezuela’s election body has announced that Nicolas Maduro has been reelected President of the nation, even though the opposition has claimed victory too, according to reports.

The South-American country’s dependence of crypto has been fuelled by a dire economic situation, international sanctions, and nearly 8 million citizens fleeing the country in the past decade. It is one of the primary remittance-dependent nations in the continent with over $461 million in remittances in 2023 coming through cryptocurrencies, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, even looked to Tether (USDT) as a means to bypass sanctions placed on it by the United States, according to reports earlier this year. However, Venezuela ended its Petro cryptocurrency in Jan. 2024, more than five years after it was first launched.

The election authority, controlled by Maduro loyalists, said Maduro won 51% of the vote and opposition candidate Edmundo González secured 44% but since these results were based on 80% of voting stations, this marked an irreversible trend, the Associated Press reported.

In a speech, Maduro praised the electoral system, alleged the system was the target of a failed “massive hack” by a foreign actor, which he refused to identify, and called Argentina’s President Javier Milei a “sociopath.” Milei said on X Venezuelans chose to end Maduro’s dictatorship and that Argentina is not going to recognize another fraud.

The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they had “serious concerns” about the election results and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida which has the largest Venezuelan community in the U.S. said Maduro’s government had “just carried out the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history.”

“Today the dignity and courage of the Venezuelan people triumphed over pressure and manipulation,” said Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on X.

Read More: Venezuela Looks to Tether to Bypass Sanctions: Reuters