Analysts Remain Skeptical About "Whether Venezuela Holds 600K BTC"

BlockBeats News, January 6th. The recent actions taken by the United States against Venezuelan President Maduro have once again sparked discussions about whether Venezuela has an "undisclosed Bitcoin reserve." Investigative journalist Bradley Hope claims that the Venezuelan government may have converted gold to Bitcoin over the years, with a potential scale of up to 600,000 BTC, valued at around $60 billion.

However, several mainstream blockchain analysis firms have not found any on-chain evidence to support this claim. Hope's figure of 600,000 BTC is not based on on-chain data but rather on a mathematical calculation based on Venezuela's gold sales since 2018.

Frank Weert, co-founder of Whale Alert, stated that if Venezuela indeed holds such a significant amount of Bitcoin, it would be almost impossible to completely evade tracking by blockchain analysis firms, and any related claims would require "very strong evidence."

Nevertheless, analysts point out that Venezuela has indeed been actively exploring the use of cryptocurrency. The country has launched the state-backed digital currency Petro, anchored to oil, and has utilized crypto payments in energy and cross-border transactions. Due to high domestic inflation, Venezuela ranked in the top 20 in global cryptocurrency adoption in 2025.

Currently, the official status of Venezuela's cryptocurrency holdings remains highly opaque. Several institutions, 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 coin mixers, cross-chain transactions, and offshore OTC channels.