Knowing Trump it wasn't the banks foremost, but more likely the reported, if I remember correctly, six hundred million in bitcoin Venezuela had. Actually I just went and looked, and it's like 60 billion.
Venezuela’s Alleged $60B Bitcoin Stash: The World’s Most Whispered-About Whale
Posted on January 5, 2026 by Josh Taylor
The rumor: a tiny official balance or a monstrous hidden hoard?
So here’s the spicy headline: official records say Venezuela controls about 240 Bitcoin — basically pocket change in the crypto ocean. But a recent investigative report throws a Molotov cocktail into that calm, suggesting the real number might be closer to 600,000 BTC. Yes, six hundred thousand. At today’s prices that’s a mind-bending pile of cash — tens of billions of dollars.
How would a sanctioned, cash-strapped country pull that off? The rumour goes like this: during heavy sanctions, state actors allegedly converted big chunks of physical resources into digital gold. Gold from large mining operations was reportedly sold off and swapped into Bitcoin when prices were low. Meanwhile, oil sales that couldn’t go through regular banks were paid in stablecoins like USDT — and then those stablecoins were allegedly converted into Bitcoin to keep the money out of reach of foreign controls. Add a failed national token, a domestic mining ban, and a pattern of squeezing private crypto activity, and you get a plausible motive for quietly funneling wealth into an off-the-books, state-controlled crypto reserve.
Why traders, lawyers, and regulators are losing sleep
OK — assume the rumor is directionally true. What then? If U.S. authorities manage to seize those keys, they won’t just nab a corrupt regime’s piggy bank — they’ll potentially hold roughly 3% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. That kind of haul changes the math.
Most likely near-term outcome: a frozen float. Seized coins typically get locked up in legal limbo while creditors, arbitration winners, and other claimants file injunctions and lawsuits. Think Citgo-style courtroom wrestling, but with private keys and block explorers. Litigation could take years or even decades, effectively removing those coins from active supply — which, mechanically speaking, is bullish for price because a huge chunk of supply is temporarily off the market.
There are other scenarios, each with its own drama. One possibility is that the seized BTC becomes a sort of strategic reserve held by the government — not sold, but retained as a sovereign asset. Imagine a national piggy bank full of Bitcoin: flashy headline, subtle policy shift, and a major symbolic win for the asset class. The darkness on the other end of the spectrum is a fire sale — dumping hundreds of thousands of coins to raise cash. But that’s generally seen as self-defeating: unloading that much would likely crater prices and destroy the sale’s own value, so it’s considered unlikely.
Then there’s the wider, less sexy risk: a sovereign overhang. If one sanctioned state could quietly amass huge Bitcoin reserves, what if others did the same? That potential for hidden, state-held supply adds a geopolitical wildcard to crypto markets. Plus, if stablecoins were used as an intermediate step in those transactions, expect renewed regulatory heat on stablecoin issuers and the payment rails that let nation-states sidestep traditional banking.
In short: the story to watch isn’t just a courtroom cameo — it’s the wallet-level forensics. Market participants will be scanning chains for linked wallets, tracking gold-for-BTC narratives, and monitoring legal filings. If those coins vanish into long-term custody or legal freezers, we get a supply-side squeeze; if they start moving, volatility is guaranteed. Either way, the episode reminds investors that sovereign behavior — secret, strategic, or desperate — can suddenly become a major market factor. Buckle up and keep your block explorers ready.
Interesting, Venezuela has been a haven for crypto projects for a long time so this theory/news isn't so surprising.
Getting the keys to the bitcoin is the problem that any thief has to face.
It puts an interesting twist on the traditional plundering methods.
Keeping an eye on those transactions and front run any moves would require a considerable amount of bitcoin to profit from its movements.
Still it's a fascinating story. 🤔👍
Yeah now there was another guy the other night on a video claiming to be former CIA, and doing the Sidney Powell talk about Venezuela rigging voting machines and linking this operation to getting the codes used to rig those machines during elections. After that talking point memo I said drugs, oil, bitcoin, codes? It could just also be, given the lack of any real outrage by world leaders, that he didn't want to go along with the new global alignment of one regional powerplayer who took care of all the issues for any given region. That was a proposed idea back during the first Trump admin, and maybe more than a coincidence now given he wants Canada, Greenland, etc., For such a system to work, all countries would have to be in agreement to the new power restructuring.
If we look to history we see that appeasement never works.
Hope we avoid another global conflagration.
Americans must fix their own problems before they become someone else's problem.
My tip. Stop watching the news.
I have a passion for it. I like connecting political puzzles. I can connect quite a bit of what I said through having gone through the global partnerships mutual agreements of understanding.
History has shown us that appeasement doesn't work, but the system will work just fine once everyone's digital ID, financials, medicals records, well, basically just as soon as AI knows you better than you know yourself. If you aren't happy with the appeasements, they'll easily adjust one's attitude.