- A number of crypto media outlets are now spreading the claim that Venezuela has built up a crypto reserve of up to 660,000 Bitcoin under the Maduro regime.
- That would correspond to up to 67 billion dollars. The reports cite analysts who supposedly have access to intelligence information.
What is striking, however, is that no renowned business editorial team – neither Reuters nor Bloomberg, not the Financial Times and not the Wall Street Journal – pick up on or even confirm this figure. International institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank do not report any corresponding data. The report is therefore pure speculation.
How the alleged mega-reserve was supposed to have come about
The reports consistently describe the scenario that Venezuela has been systematically converting traditional assets into cryptocurrencies that are difficult to sanction since 2018.
There are said to have been gold sales worth around two billion dollars between 2018 and 2020, and Bitcoins were then bought at the comparatively low prices at the time.
In addition, there have been oil exports since 2023 for which the state oil company PDVSA has accepted payments in Bitcoin.
And finally, the Maduro regime is said to have expropriated entire mining farms and collected their Bitcoin holdings and subsequent profits.
All of this is possible and could have led to the rumored total of more than 600,000 Bitcoin. But as is the case with rumors: Everything is possible, nothing has been proven and in this case certainly not by publicly verifiable onchain data.
Unproven claims
The reports emerged after Maduro’s arrest by the US military. In fact, a Bitcoin reserve of this size would make Venezuela one of the largest Bitcoin investors in the world, in the league of Strategy.
This speaks for:
Venezuela has been subject to massive US sanctions for years due to corruption and drug trafficking, particularly affecting the financial system and individuals in Maduro’s power circle. It is plausible that Bitcoin has been used as a tool to evade sanctions.
There is also evidence that Venezuela had close economic ties with China and Russia. In this environment, non-transparent payment channels to avoid US sanctions are not unreasonable.
Against this speaks:
Neither the IMF, the World Bank and the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal nor Bloomberg and Reuters report anything about alleged Venezuelan Bitcoins.
What is certain, however, is that Venezuela has around $60 billion in foreign debt and has been on the verge of national bankruptcy several times. A nice Bitcoin reserve of the same amount would come in handy. But that doesn’t make it any more plausible.
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