The Venezuelan National Guard has seized 315 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines, while the government has been denied access to its gold reserves stored in England.

Venezuelan National Guard seizes Bitcoin mining rigs

The Venezuelan National Guard has seized 315 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines as they were being transported in Puerto Ordaz.

Apparently the owners of the Bitmain miners didn’t “have the required permits to own and operate the machines.” Authorities in Puerto Ordaz also said the owners were not authorised to transport them during the COVID-19 quarantine. 

Under Venezuelan law anyone wanting to own or operate cryptocurrency mining machines must first secure permits from the “National Superintendence of Cryptoactivities.” 

UK Court prevents Venezuela from accessing its own gold reserves

Just last week, the UK High Court blocked Venezuela’s ‘president’ Nicolas Maduro from accessing  gold stored at the Bank of England – which amounts to some $1 billion USD worth. 

Venezuela’s central bank, Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV), had sued the Bank of England for access to the gold, but Maduro’s rival, Juan Guaidó, who declared himself acting president in 2019, argued that Maduro would use the gold for corrupt purposes, not to fight the COVID-19 outbreak as claimed.

The Bank of England asked the High Court to rule on who the UK government should recognise as legitimate president of Venezuela, and it concluded that the UK had “unequivocally recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as president.”

This will put further pressure on the Venezuelan government’s finances, which were already reeling from a collapsing economy and hyperinflation before the COVID-19 crisis hit, and the international demand for oil collapsed.

As we’ve previously reported, the Venezuelan government had pinned its economic hopes on its national oil-backed Petro cryptocurrency. However, even prior to the current global crisis, the digital currency system had been lambasted as a joke, and seemed to be falling apart, with only the government itself taking it seriously, and the Venezuelan people opting to stick with cryptos like Bitcoin.

AYO.NEWS says:

This is interesting, as only last week Max Keiser predicted that a Bitcoin hash rate war will soon break out between the United States on one side, and Iran and Venezuela on the other. 

We wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the 315 Bitmain machines make their way to some secret government run mining farm, along with all the other rigs that have been confiscated over the last few years. 

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