en.bitcoinsistemi.com
Recent events have reignited the debate over whether Venezuela possesses undeclared Bitcoin (BTC) reserves.
However, analysts remain highly skeptical about the claim that there are 600,000 BTC in the country.
Investigative journalist Bradley Hope has suggested that the Venezuelan government may have gradually converted the proceeds from gold sales since 2018 into Bitcoin. According to Hope, this conversion mathematically amounts to approximately 600,000 BTC, or around $60 billion at current prices. However, this figure is based on theoretical inferences from gold export volumes, not direct on-chain data.
Mainstream reports from leading blockchain analytics companies have failed to provide any concrete evidence to support this claim. Firms like Chainalysis and Elliptic have stated they found no on-chain evidence of large-scale Bitcoin wallets that could be linked to the Venezuelan government. Whale Alert co-founder Frank Weert commented, “If a government were truly holding this much Bitcoin, it would be nearly impossible for them to completely evade detection by analytics firms; such a claim would require very strong evidence.”
On the other hand, Hope argues that on-chain silence may not necessarily mean there are no reserves. Analysts also point out that Venezuela is no stranger to cryptocurrencies. Due to high inflation and the devaluation of the local currency, crypto use has been widespread in the country for many years. Venezuela has launched Petro, a national digital asset pegged to oil, and has tested crypto payments in the energy sector and cross-border trade. Under these conditions, Venezuela is expected to be among the top 20 in global crypto adoption by 2025.
Despite this, the size and nature of digital assets held by the government remain largely unclear. Institutions like Arkham, Chainalysis, and Elliptic are unable to verify large government-owned Bitcoin wallets with the available data. Experts believe that if significant reserves exist, they may be highly concealed through mixers, cross-chain transfers, and offshore OTC networks.
*This is not investment advice.