The recent U.S. military raid and arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro has left the country without a trace a staggering $60 billion Bitcoin sum backed by the nation's gold and oil revenues. Zerohedge reports that the person who actually holds the private key is suspected to be a mysterious figure named "Alex Saab," who has been both involved in money laundering for Maduro and providing intelligence to the DEA.
The night of the raid: Maduro was arrested, but what about the illicit gains behind it?
U.S. Delta Force forces stormed the bedroom, dragged Nicolas Maduro and his wife out, and took them to the USS Iwo Jima to face drug and weapons charges in Manhattan. However, as Washington celebrated this dramatic military victory, another question began to draw attention: Where is Maduro's money?
For years, the Venezuelan regime has emptied the national treasury, lining its own pockets with the proceeds from the sale of gold and oil assets, and converting most of the funds into elusive cryptocurrencies. Now Maduro has been captured, but the person in control of the wallets doesn't appear to be on that warship. This person's name is "Alex Saab."
Alex Saab, Maduro's cash flow manager and secret informant in the United States
Both in Venezuela's official narrative and in Washington's eyes, Alex Saab is portrayed as a patriot or an escapee resisting US sanctions. However, the truth is more complex: Saab is an informant for the US DEA, and the two have even signed a cooperation agreement.
In other words, while Saab was building a financial network for Maduro that spanned Turkey, the UAE, and Iran, circumventing US sanctions, he was also repeatedly meeting secretly with the US to provide crucial intelligence. His role could be that of a businessman, a front man, a spy, or a "behind-the-scenes banker" who controlled the regime's financial lifeline.
Gold proceeds were converted into cryptocurrency through intermediaries in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and then the assets were transferred using mixers and cold wallets, thus escaping the jurisdiction of Western law enforcement agencies.
Since Maduro's arrest, Saab's importance has increased even more, given that he may be the only person who knows the whereabouts of his Bitcoin or even the private key to his wallet. Will he appear and cooperate with the US? Or will he disappear with this fortune? It remains to be seen.
By delving into the gold-to-Bitcoin exchange channel, how does Venezuela circumvent Western sanctions?
The $60 billion figure for Bitcoin is not fabricated. Back in 2018, Venezuela's economy collapsed, and the country faced a cash shortage, prompting the Maduro regime to begin a massive sell-off of its gold reserves. Data reveals that exports that year reached 73.2 tons, worth approximately $2.7 billion.
Large quantities of gold were ostensibly exported by the state-owned enterprise Minerven, but were secretly transshipped to Turkey, Dubai, and Iran for smuggling and sale via the OTC market. Intermediaries, including Saab, were responsible for converting the gold proceeds into cryptocurrency, and then using mixers and cold wallets to transfer the assets, thus escaping Western sanctions.
At the time, the price of BTC was between $3,000 and $10,000. If the Maduro regime had held on until the 2021 high, the return could have been dozens of times higher.
PDVSA Scandal: Over $20 Billion in Oil Proceeds Moved On-Chain
Besides gold, after 2020, Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA promoted "USDT settlement," requiring oil buyers to pay with USDT. As a result, a large amount of oil revenue flowed out through OTC wallets instead of entering the national treasury. After the PDVSA scandal was exposed, it was discovered that more than $20 billion in oil revenue had been secretly transferred to the blockchain.
By the end of 2025, Venezuela was receiving 80% of its oil revenue in USDT. Even though Tether has blocked some addresses, the traceable amount is still only the tip of the iceberg.
( Venezuela terminates Petro amid scandal: a failed national cryptocurrency )
Who holds the private keys? Did $60 billion worth of Bitcoin disappear after the regime fell?
With Maduro's capture, the US attempted to assert its military strength and power, but the biggest problem remains recovering the $60 billion in Bitcoin assets still adrift at sea. However, the truth is, without the private keys, there are no assets. Even though suspicion has been placed on Alex Saab and other intermediaries, the truth remains to be seen.
In the future, this money may be confiscated by the United States as proceeds of crime, like the " Silk Road ," or it may be taken away by the remnants of the Maduro regime, or it may remain forever sealed in a wallet that no one can open.
The article " The Vanished $60 Billion in Bitcoin: Who is Alex Saab, who controls Venezuela's cryptocurrency black market after Maduro's arrest?" first appeared on ABMedia .
