Venezuela may hold over $60 billion in Bitcoin shadow reserves.

Analyst Serenity Serenity published an article on the X platform stating that intelligence reports indicate the Venezuelan regime has accumulated shadow reserves of Bitcoin and USDT worth over $60 billion. These reserves were circumvented and accumulated through gold swaps and the requirement to settle oil exports in USDT. According to relevant intelligence, Venezuela began accumulating crypto assets in 2018. The regime once exchanged approximately $2 billion in gold proceeds for about 400,000 Bitcoins, at an average price of $5,000 each. Furthermore, between 2023 and 2025, Venezuela acquired approximately $10 billion to $15 billion in crypto assets through oil trading and converted them into Bitcoin due to USDT's freezing function. Currently, it is estimated that Venezuela holds between 600,000 and 660,000 Bitcoins, worth approximately $56 billion to $67 billion. Currently, Venezuela is listed as the world's fourth-largest holder of Bitcoin, after Satoshi Nakamoto, BlackRock, and MicroStrategy, exceeding the 325,000 Bitcoins held by the US government. The US government may offer plea agreements, reduced sentences, or protection for family members in exchange for a seed phrase to seize these assets. If these assets are seized, they may be placed in escrow by the US Treasury and locked up long-term, thereby reducing the liquid supply in the market.