- Speculation is rife that the Venezuela affair is not just about the US taking control of its oil reserves, but it’s also about seizing its massive Bitcoin reserve.
- Venezuela allegedly owns a shadow reserve of around 600,000 BTC.
MacKenzie Sigalos, an award-winning journalist, suggests the US-Venezuela affair stems from a deeper reason besides the aggressive extradition of former President Nicolas Maduro. She stated the most obvious reason, which President Donald Trump even declared, that the US is after Venezuela’s massive crude oil reserves.
Interestingly, the CNBC correspondent also said it’s about Bitcoin (BTC). Whale movements traced to Venezuela confirm such suspicions.
Crypto Use in Venezuela
Sigalos pointed out that the hyperinflation of the bolívar, Venezuela’s local currency, led Venezuelans to turn to cryptocurrencies since 2017. It’s worth noting that the bolívar’s annual inflation rate went off the rails, hitting triple digits for the first time at 121.7% in 2015 and ballooning at 65,370% in 2018, per International Monetary Fund (IMF) data. The nation’s inflation figures rested at 269.9% in 2025.
Stablecoins, particularly Tether’s USDT, were the people’s primary go-to because of their stabilized value pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Meanwhile, several citizens resorted to Bitcoin mining to boost their income. Others went for Ethereum (ETH) mining until its infrastructure changed in the 2022 Merge event from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan government and state-owned corporations under Maduro used cryptocurrencies to circumvent international sanctions, leveraging their decentralized, permissionless, and anonymous features. Sigalos revealed that the regime took USDT payments for oil, which it then converted to Bitcoin.
How Much Bitcoin Does Venezuela Own?
Various sources, such as BitcoinTreasuries.Net and CoinGecko, show that Venezuela keeps a measly 240 BTC. That’s equivalent to over $22 million this Tuesday at an average of $93,000 per BTC. However, Marc Baumann, founder and CEO of 51 Group, indicated that there’s more to the numbers.
Baumann backed Sigalos’ claim that Venezuela has been a Bitcoin mining hotspot for over a decade. Even the government was in it, as it allegedly built a shadow reserve of around 600,000 BTC, which is approximately $55.8 billion at prevailing rates.
If this is the case, it would make Venezuela the largest sovereign holder of Bitcoin in the world. It surpasses the USA’s 328,372 BTC and China’s estimated 190,000 BTC reserves.
Venezuela’s Bitcoin Masterstroke
Expounding on Sigalos interview, Baumann unwrapped Venezuela’s Bitcoin playbook, which goes all the way back to 2018 to 2020. According to the CEO, the Maduro administration generated $2 billion in gold from the Orinoco Mining Arc, which it immediately converted into 400,000 BTC at around $5,000 per BTC. Today, that’s worth roughly $37.2 billion.
By 2023, the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) required buyers of oil to pay in USDT. It immediately converted the funds into Bitcoin to prevent Tether from freezing its accounts under the pressure of international sanctions.
Possible Seizure of Venezuela’s Bitcoin Reserve
Based on the uncovered facts about Venezuela’s colossal BTC reserve, speculation is rife that the US may be looking to seize it, or may have already done so. Considering Trump’s aggressive policies to position his country as the world’s Bitcoin and crypto capital, this may not be far from the truth.
Amid the speculation, Arkham data shows the US government maintaining the same balance as before the Venezuela conflict.
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