A fictional currency is worth more than real cash in Venezuela.
The Bolivar is worth less than a fake currency used in the popular video game World of Warcraft. Venezuela’s political crisis and soaring inflation have crippled its currency.
Gold in Azeroth, the fictional setting for World of Warcraft, is nearly twice as valuable as Venezuela’s currency, Fortune reports. That’s based on the Bolivar’s black market value, anyway. Citizens prefer the Bolivar’s black market value instead of the government-set rate.
According to DolarToday, which tracks the Bolivar’s black market value, its worth 12,197 per dollar. World of Warcraft gold is priced at 6,482 per dollar.
Although it’s markedly different than the exchange set by Nicolas Maduro’s government, the black market value is one of the most popular ways of exchanging money in Venezuela, according to Fortune. Despite having the largest crude oil reserves in the world, plummeting oil prices and poor financial management have left Venezuela nearly bankrupt.
The U.S. slapped sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro Monday after he created a new political body with wide-ranging powers to support his leftist government. Reuters reports the EU may pass similar sanctions and reject the legitimacy of the election that formed Maduro’s legislative superbody.
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