The 21st Century and the crypto strategy Venezuela executed when no one was watching

And what if I told you that while the world mocked the “crypto-Petro,” a much more sophisticated operation was happening in the shadows? 📊

The silent bet in the storm

The period 2018-2020 was brutal for anyone: the crypto winter was at its peak, US sanctions were suffocating the Venezuelan economy, oil was collapsing, and Bitcoin was barely considered serious by governments. It was the perfect time to act quietly.

The numbers that tell the story

According to US intelligence reports, the picture was as follows:

• Venezuela liquidated approximately 73 tons of gold
• Revenue generated: around $2.7 billion
• Estimated conversion to BTC: ~400,000 bitcoins

This gives us a calculated entry price of: $2.7 billion ÷ 400,000 BTC ≈ $6,750 per BTC

Market timing: buy in panic, not in euphoria

This is where it gets interesting. See where Bitcoin was during those years:

• 2018: crash from $20,000 to $3,200
• 2019: oscillations between $4,000 and $10,000
• 2020 (before COVID): hovered between $7,000 and $9,000

It wasn’t luck. It was precision. The regime didn’t buy at media peaks but exactly when the market was consumed by fear. No tweets. No statements. Only strategic transactions.

The evolution of sanction arbitrage

By the end of 2025, the plot became even more sophisticated: up to 80% of oil export revenues began to be liquidated directly in USDT. And then, that USDT was converted into Bitcoin. It’s the classic 21st-century arbitrage scheme: circumvent financial restrictions through digital assets.

What changed in a decade

While many governments still debated the advisability of creating “strategic Bitcoin reserves,” Venezuela apparently had already done so years earlier. And it did so when BTC was considered little more than a curiosity for hackers and outcasts.

The real question now is not whether they bought, but how much of that Bitcoin still remains under their control and where exactly those private keys are stored.