Chavismo has bitcoin. Probably a rough number. There is no reason to doubt it; are early adopters. They have been involved with cryptocurrencies at least since late 2017, although it may have been earlier. But exactly how much they accumulate is something that, for the moment, one can only speculate.
However, speculations are often assumed to be truths on social media. This has been the case with the analysis published by the newsletter Whale Hunting, written by former Wall Street Journalists Bradley Hope and Clara Preve.
It is difficult for his speculation not to lead to confusion.when they titled the piece as The $60 Billion Question: Is Venezuela Secretly a Bitcoin Superpower?
From there, many people only interpreted “Venezuela has 600,000 BTC”. They even made graphics about it suggesting that Venezuela has almost as much Bitcoin as Strategy, and even that they had been confiscated by the US, which exaggerates the original story even more.
The speculation got so out of control that it even reached CNBC television, where an analyst delves even deeper into the possibility of the United States confiscating these BTCas if their government had some kind of right to steal that money.
The original text does not present any solid proof or concrete evidence of Venezuelan gold being converted into Bitcoin. Everything is based on claims from “sources with direct knowledge,” speculative estimates, and alleged descriptions, but explicitly mentions that “they have not been confirmed through blockchain analysis” and use terms like “if verified” or “according to sources.”
There are no documents, verifiable transactions, public testimony or forensic data to support the conversion; It is rather a journalistic narrative with assumptions based on hypothetical mathematics (for example, calculations about the value of gold exported in 2018 and its possible multiplication if it were invested in Bitcoin at that time).
Yes, Chavismo almost certainly has a hidden reserve of Bitcoin. During the Petro ICO, they accepted payments in bitcoin and ether (as well as euros and dollars) and reportedly raised over $3 billion. However, as is often the case, there are no transparent collection statistics.
Also since 2018, the government’s participation in bitcoin mining has been made public, although probably the most emblematic farm is the one revealed in 2020 in the military zone of Fuerte Tiuna.
Between 2021-2023, between USD 4 and 20 billion were diverted via shell companies in the corruption case known as PDVSA-crypto. It is known that PDVSA, the state oil company, used USDT for crude oil sales. Until December 2025, economists such as Asdrúbal Oliveros stated that 80% of oil revenues were received in USDT.
Anyway, since Chavismo understood that Bitcoin allowed them to evade sanctions, they adopted it immediately. However, it is extremely difficult to be certain of the real figure they handle, especially because control of the private keys must be distributed in a complex system among front men, not directly linked to the visible faces of the government.
In any case, If achieved, these reserves belong to the Venezuelan peoplenot to the United States, as some want.
One thing we can agree with in the Whale Hunting article is its closing question: Who has the keys to Venezuela’s Bitcoin?
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