Overview
- U.S. officials have Maduro in custody with proceedings in New York, focusing new attention on Venezuela’s off‑books assets.
- Intelligence‑linked reporting alleges the regime amassed roughly 600,000–660,000 BTC since 2018 via gold liquidations, oil‑for‑USDT deals, and mining seizures, but no public on‑chain attribution has been presented.
- Alex Saab is cited as a key operator in the alleged network, with some court filings indicating past DEA informant activity, raising questions about who controls wallet access.
- If wallets are identified, analysts flag three paths for U.S. authorities: extended legal freeze, addition to a strategic reserve, or auctions, with liquidation viewed as least likely.
- Markets are weighing the risk that up to 3% of circulating BTC could be immobilized; Bitcoin traded near $92,000–$94,000 as public datasets still list only about 240 BTC officially held by Venezuela.