Bolivia’s state energy company YBFB will use cryptocurrency to pay for energy imports, according to a Reuters report.

YBFB hopes that using crypto will be a direct solution to the nation’s shortage in U.S. dollars and foreign currency reserves.

The shortage comes alongside a fuel crisis spurred by a lack of natural gas exports, which had led to scattered protests across the country, the report said.

“From now on, these (cryptocurrency) transactions will be carried out,” a YPFB spokesperson told Reuters.

This is not the first time a South American state-owned energy firm has moved into crypto; in 2023 Agentina’s YPF announced that it was moving into crypto mining, and last April Venezuela’s PDVSA revealed that it was using cryptocurrencies to combat U.S. imposed oil sanctions.

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