President Nicolás Maduro revealed the new banknotes earlier in the week, revaluing and renaming the old currency.
The money went into circulation on Tuesday, with the government claiming that it will curb hyperinflation. However, critics believe it could worsen the situation.
Thousands of businesses closed in preparation for the new currency – the sovereign bolivar – leading to many people not going to work and bringing the country to a temporary halt.
However, Mr Maduro praised the new currency on Twitter:
“We found the revolutionary formula that puts work in the centre of the general re-adjustment of society, based on the production of goods and the value of salary. With that, we’re gonna put to rest forever the perverse model that dollarised the prices in the country.
Later in the day he added: “I call on the people to defend – conscientiously – the adjustment of the prices on street.”
The new currency has five fewer zeroes than its predecessor and will be pegged to Venezuela’s cryptocurrency, the petro, which was banned in March by President Donald Trump, who claimed it was launched to skirt US sanctions.
US citizens cannot trade in the currency and cryptocurrency site, ICOindex.com, has even labelled the petro “a scam”.
Economist Luis Vicente León told AFP: “Anchoring the bolivar to the petro is anchoring it to nothing.”
However, the sovereign bolivar is said to have been successful, so far, according to reports.
Speaking to CNN from Caracas, journalist Stefano Pozzebon said: “I went to the pharmacy and saw that a can of coke, for example, cost 2,800,000 of the older Bolivar, the ones that were still in use until yesterday at 8 pm. This morning, the staff of the pharmacy were busy labelling the products with the new prices, and the can of coke will cost 28 bolivars.”
Venezuela’s economy remains in a state of chaos, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicting that inflation could reach as a high as one million per cent this year, which would mark one of the worst hyperinflation crises in modern history.