Analysts remain skeptical about whether Venezuela holds 600,000 BTC.

On January 6, the United States recently took action against Venezuelan President Maduro, reigniting discussions about whether Venezuela has “undisclosed Bitcoin reserves.” Investigative journalist Bradley Hope claims that the Venezuelan government may have converted gold into Bitcoin over many years, with a potential scale of up to 600,000 BTC, worth approximately $60 billion. However, several mainstream blockchain analysis firms have yet to find any on-chain evidence supporting this claim. Hope’s estimate of 600,000 BTC is not based on on-chain data but is a mathematical calculation based on Venezuela’s gold sales since 2018. Frank Weert, co-founder of Whale Alert, stated that if Venezuela truly holds such a large amount of Bitcoin, it would be nearly impossible to completely evade blockchain analysis, and such claims require “very strong evidence.” Nevertheless, analysts point out that Venezuela has indeed long attempted to use cryptocurrencies. The country previously launched Petro, a national digital currency backed by oil, and has used crypto payments in energy and cross-border transactions. Due to high inflation of the local currency, Venezuela ranked among the top 20 in global cryptocurrency adoption in 2025. Currently, the Venezuelan government’s holdings of crypto assets remain highly opaque. Multiple organizations, including Arkham, Chainalysis, and Elliptic, have not confirmed the existence of large-scale Bitcoin wallets directly linked to the government. Analysts believe that even if such assets exist, they may be highly concealed through mixers, cross-chain transactions, and offshore OTC channels.