For years, the Venezuelan regime allegedly siphoned billions in oil revenue, gold reserves, and state assets into a "shadow reserve" of Bitcoin and Tether.

New intelligence reports from HUMINT and Whale Hunting sources suggest Caracas may be sitting on a BTC stash that rivals MSTR.

Starting in 2018, the regime began an aggressive liquidation of gold from the Orinoco Mining Arc.

Sources indicate they converted roughly $2B in gold into Bitcoin at an average price of $5,000, accumulating approximately 400,000 BTC.

At today’s prices (~$90k), that single tranche is worth $36 Billion.

The USDT Pivot As the "Petro" experiment collapsed, Caracas pivoted to USDT as a proxy for crude sales to evade sanctions.

To avoid the risk of Tether address freezes, they "washed" those proceeds back into Bitcoin.

The Estimated Breakdown:

Gold Swaps (2018–2020): ~$45B–$50B

Oil Settlements (2023–2025): ~$10B–$15B

Mining Seizures (2023–2024): ~$500M

Total Estimated Holdings: 600,000 – 660,000+ BTC ($56B - $67B)

In an interesting twist? Court documents reveal that Alex Saab, the man who built this BTC accumulation engine, had been a DEA informant since 2016.

Washington was watching the architecture being built in real-time.

With Nicolás Maduro now captured, the Bitcoin is not yet secured. The coming days will be a high-stakes race to locate the private keys.

Does the U.S. gain access to the hoard and add it to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, or do Maduro's cronies run away with it?