Bitcoin virtual currency billboard in Hong Kong, November 26, 2025.
Ram Eek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Following last weekend’s deposition of President Nicolas Maduro, all eyes are on Venezuela and its vast oil reserves. But there is another resource that the Maduro regime appears to have in abundance. It’s an asset that, if liquidated or seized, could impact global financial markets. Bitcoin.
Venezuela is likely storing a significant amount of cryptocurrencies, with the stash potentially worth billions of US dollars, experts told CNBC.
“It’s very fair to think that Venezuela had meaningful exposure to Bitcoin,” said Gui Gomez, founder and CEO of Latin America-based Bitcoin company OranjeBTC. “Given their exclusion from the global financial system, they probably had gold, Bitcoin, and a few dollars under their mattresses.”
Sanctions imposed against Venezuela have restricted access to the country’s financial markets. Experts said the country likely experimented with cryptocurrencies to avoid this. They noted that because of the privacy features of the decentralized asset and its underlying technology, it is virtually impossible to confirm the exact amount of Bitcoin Venezuela holds or where its holdings are stored. But one thing is clear: If Mr. Maduro and his allies have tokens in a safe, their assets could be on the move quickly. And whether those bitcoins are sold, confiscated, or exchanged, crypto holders could feel the effects.
Billions of Bitcoin?
Digital publication Project Brazen reported on Saturday that Venezuela may hold around $60 billion, citing anonymous sources not confirmed by blockchain analysis. Such a stash would make the regime the world’s largest holder of cryptocurrencies, along with Bitcoin treasury companies. strategy.
Data provider Bitcointreasuries.net estimates Venezuela’s holdings at 240 Bitcoins, worth about $22 million. To achieve this estimate, they used data from a blockchain analysis company cited by the media. Based on their ranking, this would be the ninth-largest Bitcoin pile held by a government agency.
All of these estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. Diogo Monica, general partner at Haun Ventures, told CNBC that Venezuela would have had to rely on more clandestine methods to accumulate shadow reserves, as many of the leading companies offering cryptocurrency custody solutions, such as digital asset banks Anchorage Digital and Fireblocks, are registered in the United States or its allies.
“There are so many Bitcoin (solutions) on the market, and it’s actually very easy to meet high security standards through those means,” Monika said.
As a result, the Bitcoin held by Venezuela is likely spread across thousands of cryptocurrency wallets under the control of various generals and other members of Maduro’s party, making it difficult to identify and trace, said Orange BTC’s Gomez.
According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, on-chain analysis could reveal the transaction history and balances of public addresses linked to hardware wallets. However, these methods do not provide definitive insight into the identity of wallet owners, making it difficult for cybercrime experts to identify which wallets belong to Venezuelan authorities.
That said, it’s still likely that Venezuela has accumulated large amounts of Bitcoin in recent years to weather the effects of its exclusion from global financial markets, Andrew Fierman, director of national security intelligence at Chainalysis, told CNBC.
He noted that the country has a history of using unorthodox methods to convert and transfer wealth, such as flying Maduro’s allies overseas to exchange tangible assets for more liquid funds.
“If they’re going to put people on private jets with lots of gold, it would make a lot of sense for them to try to use crypto assets for both wealth accumulation and cross-border trade,” Fiermann said. He declined to estimate the value of his Venezuelan holdings.
The South American country also has a long history of experimentation with cryptocurrencies, Fiermann said. He cited as an example the failed issuance of a token called Petro in 2018, which was phased out in 2024.
Fiermann said that given the history of digital assets, it is possible that the Venezuelan government owns other cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin, including stablecoins.
However, Jorge Jaraissati, president of the nonprofit Economic Inclusion Group, said Bitcoin is likely to become the preferred asset because it is issued by an agnostic network and, unlike most stablecoins, has no direct link to the US dollar. He added that some of the regime’s Bitcoin may have been obtained through the seizure of cryptocurrency miners’ token rewards by local authorities.
In 2017, CNBC reported that Venezuelan authorities were trying to curb cryptocurrency mining by arresting Bitcoin miners and seizing their assets. That was before the country completely outlawed the practice in 2024, citing energy concerns.
Hashrate Index data shows that as of 2025, Venezuela accounts for approximately 0.6% of the total hashrate, a measure of the power used to mine tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain.
What happens next?
Assuming Venezuela holds Bitcoin, there is speculation about what will happen next. One possibility is that Maduro’s holdings will be put up for sale, said Sebastián Pedro Baer, president and chief investment officer of Reserve One.
“Every time there’s a chaotic regime change, that country’s assets become unstable so people can steal things,” Bee said. “I’m not saying it’s likely, but if they have Bitcoin, the chances that some of that Bitcoin will end up on exchange or end up being sold is more likely today than it was last week.”
This decline could cause the price of Bitcoin to fall in the short term.
Alternatively, the U.S. could seize Venezuelan Bitcoin as part of an enforcement action, Bee said.
“There is nothing to stop the United States from further enforcement actions going after bad actors[in Venezuela]who may happen to have large amounts of Bitcoin,” Bee said. “And once they do that, that bitcoin could go directly to the Treasury.”
Some crypto holders have speculated that the Trump administration may confiscate some of Maduro and his allies’ Bitcoin in order to create a U.S. Bitcoin reserve at no cost to taxpayers.
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve at no cost to taxpayers. This is the central tenet of his cryptocurrency promotion policy plan. But critics and supporters alike have questioned the content of the proposal, including how Bitcoin could be accumulated in a tax-neutral manner.
Chris Perkins, managing partner and president of the investment firm Coinfund, said it was unclear whether the United States could legally use Venezuelan bitcoin to create the planned strategic reserve fund. However, the executive said such a scenario would ultimately be bullish for the asset.
“…As long as the Trump administration owns a lot of Bitcoin, don’t expect them to release it into the market,” said Perkins, a former U.S. Marine.
Regardless of what happens next, recent U.S. actions in Venezuela confirm the Trump administration’s ability and willingness to use its power to advance its policy goals, including promoting and developing the digital asset industry, Bee said.
“Cryptocurrency appears to be an unintended beneficiary of (the US military intervention in Venezuela) in the long run,” Bee said.
