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

YBFB hopes that the use of crypto will be a direct solution to the country’s deficiency in US dollars and foreign currencies.

The deficiency comes along with 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 performed,” a spokesman for YPFB told Reuters.

This is not the first time that a South American state -owned energy company is moved into crypto; In 2023, Agentin’s YPF announced that it moved into Crypto mining, and in April last year, Venezuela’s PDVSA revealed that it used cryptocurrencies to fight us imposed on oil sanctions.