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The fate of as much as US$60 billion (HK$468 billion) in rumored Venezuelan cryptocurrency holdings could prove supportive for Bitcoin prices, following the US capture of President Nicolas Maduro.
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Bitcoin climbed back above US$92,000, up about 5 percent for the month, as investors assessed ownership of the assets.
The holdings are widely believed to have been accumulated over years through gold-for-crypto transactions and oil exports settled in Tether's USDT, allowing Venezuela to bypass US sanctions.
The country was said to export 73.2 metric tons of gold in 2018, worth about US$2.7 billion at the time. If even a portion of the proceeds was converted into Bitcoin when prices were between US$3,000 and US$10,000, and held through the 2021 peak near US$69,000, the holdings could rival those of MicroStrategy and exceed the national reserves of El Salvador.
US financial commentary site Zerohedge has said that under sanctions Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA required oil shipments to be settled in USDT, with as much as 80 percent of the country's oil revenue said to have been received in the stablecoin by December 2025, despite Tether freezing some related wallets.
