Opinion: Lack of Evidence to Support Claims of Venezuela Holding $60 Billion in Bitcoin

According to reports, there have been recent market rumors suggesting that the Venezuelan government may secretly hold up to $60 billion worth of Bitcoin. However, Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of Ledn and a long-time Bitcoin miner in Venezuela, stated that this claim is more based on speculation and second-hand information, lacking credible on-chain evidence. The three main sources of these rumors are:

1) A large-scale gold sale in Venezuela in 2018 exchanged for Bitcoin; 2) Some oil revenue settled in Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies; 3) Confiscation or theft of mining machines by the government.

Mauricio acknowledged that Venezuela has indeed received cryptocurrency in some oil transactions and there have been cases of the government confiscating mining machines, but he emphasized that there is no credible evidence to suggest that the approximately $2.7 billion gold sale in 2018 was converted into Bitcoin. The key figure in this transaction, current Minister of Industry and National Production Alex Saab, was detained by the United States from 2020 to 2023 and was released at the end of 2023 as part of a prisoner swap agreement.

If it is true that they control $10-20 billion worth of BTC as rumored, it would clearly contradict the approximately $9.9 billion official reserve size disclosed by the Venezuelan central bank at that time, and there has never been any on-chain address reliably attributed to Saab or the Venezuelan government.

Furthermore, even if the Venezuelan regime had received cryptocurrency income, the extremely corrupt system would hardly allow these funds to enter the national treasury. Mauricio cited the 2023 corruption scandal involving SUNACRIP (National Cryptocurrency Regulatory Authority) as an example, pointing out that from 2020 to 2023, officials embezzled around $17.6 billion through illegal oil transactions, and it is highly likely that cryptocurrency profits were also privately pocketed.

As for the claim of large-scale mining using confiscated mining machines, Mauricio also expressed skepticism. He noted that Venezuela has long suffered from severe power shortages, aging infrastructure, a significant loss of technical personnel, and even struggles to effectively operate core assets like the oil company PDVSA, making it unlikely to have the conditions to operate large-scale Bitcoin mining facilities. Venezuela does indeed have Bitcoin, but they are not in the hands of the government.

Related Articles