The post Gold hits $4,400 as Venezuela blockade bites, but a quiet ownership shift is changing how winners trade appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Earlier this month, the US began intercepting and seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan crude, with a first seizure reported around Dec. 10 and a second interception by Dec. 20. By Dec. 22, US officials said a third vessel was being pursued near Venezuelan waters. Caracas responded with an emergency law imposing prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes or finances blockades or similar disruptions to maritime commerce. With onshore storage nearing capacity, PDVSA shifted to floating storage (loading crude onto tankers and anchoring them offshore), while some ships made U-turns and loadings slowed. That’s the scene as of this week: oil is still moving, but through narrower pipes and with higher friction. Washington framed the maritime actions as enforcement against sanctions evasion and trafficking, while Caracas called it economic warfare. But markets didn’t wait for a verdict. Oil prices increased on the prospect of delayed cargoes, according to Reuters. Gold delivered the headline: an emphatic run to fresh all-time highs above $4,400 per ounce on Dec. 22, powered by haven flows and easier-policy bets into year-end. That combination of shipping stress and a metal in breakout set the tone across markets, including crypto. “Escalating geopolitical tensions, most recently around the blockade of Venezuelan oil, are once again exposing how fragile global supply chains and pricing mechanisms remain. Oil prices have moved higher, but the more telling signal is in gold, which is once again pushing toward the high set in October,” Björn Schmidtke, CEO of Aurelion, told CryptoSlate. “It’s clear that geopolitical and macro instability is not a short-term phenomenon, but a structural feature investors will continue to contend with. In that environment, gold’s role as a hedge hasn’t changed, but the expectations around how investors access and hold it have. Investors want certainty, transparency, and assets…

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Filed under: News - @ December 26, 2025 8:26 am