‘There’s so much corruption, embezzlement and missing money’: Venezuela’s rumored $60 billion Bitcoin ‘shadow reserve’ draws skepticism

When Bitcoin first launched in 2009, many investors dismissed the currency as a fringe concept and even as a scam. (Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s former right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, memorably called it “stupid and evil.”) But the asset has skyrocketed in value in recent years and President Donald Trump labeled the currency “digital gold” after signing an executive order to create a strategic bitcoin reserve last January. Now, reports allege that Venezuela has bought into that “digital gold,” holding a “shadow reserve” nearly double that of the U.S.

Digital publication Project Brazen reported Saturday that Venezuela could hold an estimated $60 billion worth of Bitcoin. Additional intelligence reports allege that ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his associates accrued Bitcoin via three channels: a gold swap overseen by Venezuelan Interior Minister Alex Saab in 2018, oil revenue priced in Bitcoin, and by seizing crypto mining equipment from miners in the country.  

Sanctions have walled off the country’s access to financial markets for years, and experts allege that they may have motivated Venezuelan leaders to invest in cryptocurrencies to sidestep the barrier.

Bitcointreasuries.net puts Venezuela’s holdings at 240 bitcoin, worth nearly $22 million. The website sourced the data from a 2022 Forbes article that cited research from a blockchain analytics firm. The total is a far cry from the estimated U.S. holdings of 328,372, currently worth $30 billion, though the claim positions Venezuela’s holdings at nearly double the U.S. and one of the biggest holders of bitcoin globally.

Some are raising their eyebrows

The claims of Venezuela’s shadow Bitcoin holdings have predictably garnered skeptics, including digital asset financial services company Ledn Co-founder Mauricio di Bartolemo, who grew up in Venezuela and whose family has mined crypto there since 2014.

Di Bartolemo finds no credibility in any of the three alleged sources of bitcoin income: the gold swap, oil exchange or mining equipment seizures. “This to me does not align with anything in the public record,” di Bartolemo told Fortune. “There’s so much corruption, embezzlement and missing money that I don’t believe that any meaningful amount would have accrued.”

He outlined his full argument in a Coindesk op-ed piece titled “Don’t hold your breath for Venezuela’s bitcoin.” Though he notes that his family’s crypto mining materials were seized by the government in 2018 and returned five years later in a worn down condition, signaling heavy use of the equipment.

Di Bartolemo says that stablecoins have grown in popularity in Venezuela amid rampant inflation. Many Venezuelans send remittances to their families using stablecoins as the currency has a better exchange rate differential than liquid cash.

The claim’s impact

It is near impossible to track how much crypto the Venezuelan government holds, given the decentralized and clandestine properties of the asset. However, if true, the claims could potentially reshape global Bitcoin markets.

While most of the U.S. government’s crypto holdings were accrued through law enforcement seizures, the rise of crypto as a state-controlled asset entered the mainstream last year after President Trump signed the executive order to create a national Bitcoin reserve to bolster the U.S’s position in digital assets, at no cost to taxpayers. 

Now that the U.S. is in effective control of Venezuela, with ambiguous statements from Trump that the U.S. “is going to run” the country, it is unclear what will happen to any Bitcoin reserves that do exist. Real or fake, the claim demonstrates the currency’s growing geopolitical significance and the Trump administration’s willingness to advance its interest in the digital assets industry.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com