President Donald Trump has banned all American use of Venezuela’s new cryptocurrency, a step to further tighten financial sanctions against Nicolas Maduro’s government. The Trump administration said Venezuela’s recently launched cryptocurrency, known as the “petro”, was introduced to skirt US sanctions aimed at punishing Mr Maduro’s government for its “unconstitutional” and “undemocratic behaviour”. In a separate move on Monday, the administration also slapped sanctions on four current and former senior Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and mismanagement. A senior administration official said the US is actively looking into oil sanctions.