Coinbase billionaire Fred Ehrsam wants three Venezuelan oil fields the US may seize

Fred Ehrsam made his money in cryptocurrency. He is now trying to take over three Venezuelan oil fields whose current operators the American government is considering removing.

The Coinbase co-founder is pursuing fields run by Alvorda Heavy Industries, a Venezuelan company, as the Trump administration works to push out operators installed under Nicolás Maduro, Bloomberg reported. Ehrsam's vehicle is Primavera, a firm he co-founded specifically to invest in Venezuela.

No agreement covering those three fields has been announced, and Ehrsam did not appear at the signing ceremony in Caracas on Wednesday.

Plenty of others did. Chevron and Eni signed agreements alongside GE Vernova, the investor KEO Capital and Primavera itself, at an event overseen by Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez and United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Wright described the package as tens of billions of dollars in investment and a transformation for the country, and said the administration was working at what he called Trump-speed.

Chevron committed more than $7 billion to develop two additional fields in the Orinoco Belt through its Petroindependencia joint venture with the state producer PDVSA, expecting to more than double output to roughly 600,000 barrels a day within five years. Chief executive Mike Wirth said production costs should stay below $20 a barrel because the infrastructure already exists. Eni secured exclusive rights to explore Junin 5.

Those deals are separate from the arrangement Trump announced last week, which gives an American-led company hundred-year concessions over 17 Venezuelan oil fields, about a fifth of the country's reserves, with the United States government holding a 35% stake in the producer North American Blue Energy Partners.

How the country reached this point is the part that makes the investment unusual. American forces captured Maduro in a raid in January, Rodríguez took over as unelected interim president, and Venezuelan lawmakers passed sweeping oil reforms shortly afterwards. Critics in both countries have accused Trump of holding Venezuela to ransom, and warned that Rodríguez could face the same treatment as her predecessor if she does not comply with Washington.

Ehrsam co-founded Coinbase with Brian Armstrong in 2012 and left day-to-day involvement in 2017, later starting the crypto investment firm Paradigm. He remains a Coinbase shareholder and has become an ally of Trump.

The businessman who assembled the wider Caracas deal, Alejandro Betancourt, faces fraud allegations and was also absent from Wednesday's ceremony.

Exxon Mobil has stayed away. Chief executive Darren Woods called Venezuela uninvestable at a White House meeting in January.