Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam has moved beyond crypto and venture investing into Venezuelan oil, backing a project that sits at the intersection of energy policy, political risk and capital allocation. Through Primavera Infinita, a company he co-founded with Stanford graduate Manuel Iribarren, Ehrsam signed a production participation contract with Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA in early September for the Budare-Elotes block. PDVSA’s long-term target is for the block to add more than 70,000 barrels a day. The move stands out against Ehrsam’s background. He worked as a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs, co-founded Coinbase with Brian Armstrong in 2012, and later launched crypto investment firm Paradigm in 2018. His broader investment record also includes OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX. The report argues that the real bet is not only on oil production, but on how long the current political opening in Venezuela remains in place. The article also places Ehrsam’s move in a wider pattern across crypto wealth. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has disclosed exposure to oil, metals and defense names alongside BTC and ETH, while Tether has used profits and excess capital to build a portfolio spanning energy, agriculture, land and AI, including a controlling stake in Adecoagro. Together, those cases point to a shift: crypto capital is no longer focused only on bringing real-world assets on-chain, but is increasingly buying and operating physical assets directly.

USDT trading in Venezuela at one point reached about 75% of the country’s monthly oil export value, according to Techub, citing CryptoBriefing. Economist Asdrúbal Oliveros told The Wall Street Journal that roughly 80% of Venezuela’s oil revenue is expected to be settled in USDT by early 2026. State oil company PDVSA has required oil payments to be prepaid in USDT since 2023. Chainalysis data also showed that Venezuela’s total crypto transaction volume hit $44.6 billion in the 12 months through June 2025. At the same time, Tether has frozen multiple wallets tied to sanctions evasion concerns, adding to the compliance debate around stablecoin use in cross-border trade and energy-related settlements.

Venezuelan President Maduro invites all OPEC members to create a joint platform for trading oil-backed cryptocurrencies, with the petro presale set for Feb 20. The petro can be used for taxes and public services, and PDVSA will adopt it.