Opinion: The claim of "Venezuela holding $60 billion in bitcoin" lacks supporting evidence

BlockBeats News, January 8 — Recently, there have been market rumors that the Venezuelan government may secretly hold up to $60 billion worth of bitcoin. However, Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of Ledn who has lived in Venezuela and been engaged in bitcoin mining for a long time, stated that this claim is mostly 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 by Venezuela in 2018, which was allegedly converted into bitcoin;
2) Some oil revenues being settled in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies;
3) The government seizing or stealing mining machines for mining purposes.

Mauricio acknowledged that Venezuela has indeed accepted cryptocurrency in some oil transactions and that there have been cases of the government confiscating mining machines. However, he emphasized that there is no credible evidence showing 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 US between 2020 and 2023 and was released at the end of 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange agreement.

If, as the rumors claim, the government truly controls $10–20 billion worth of BTC, this would clearly contradict the approximately $9.9 billion in official reserves disclosed by the Venezuelan central bank at the time, and no on-chain address has ever been reliably attributed to Saab or the Venezuelan state.

Moreover, even if the Venezuelan regime did receive cryptocurrency income, the extremely corrupt system would make it nearly impossible for these funds to enter the national treasury. Mauricio cited the 2023 SUNACRIP (National Cryptocurrency Regulatory Agency) corruption scandal as an example, pointing out that between 2020 and 2023, officials embezzled about $17.6 billion through illegal oil deals, and it is highly likely that cryptocurrency proceeds were also pocketed by individuals.

As for the claim of "large-scale mining using confiscated mining machines," Mauricio also disagrees. He pointed out that Venezuela has long suffered from severe power shortages, aging infrastructure, and a massive loss of technical personnel. The country struggles to operate core assets like the oil company PDVSA effectively, let alone maintain stable operations of large-scale bitcoin mining farms. "Bitcoin does exist in Venezuela, but it is not in the hands of the regime."