Top-level members of Maduro's government (including Maduro himself, the vice president and military leadership) have been sanctioned by Trump's administration, prohibiting american companies and citizens doing business with them, and their USD bank accounts were frozen. They were included in the Treasury Dept OFAC list.
A possibility is that they have acquired bitcoins or other crypto to overcome these sanctions.
The article I saw was pointing to the people of Venezuela using Bitcoin to get past the issue that they are having 1000% inflation of their currency.
I have no doubt that leaders in Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea have been mining and using Bitcoin to get around sanctions. It's probably common knowledge within the intelligence community.
Oh, sure. For that people it's has been a way to deal with that huge inflation, and to earn some "hard currency" (sounds a little bit ironic to call cryptocurrencies in that way hehe).
Certainly, there is nothing to buy in the country, unless you have USD. That's the magic.