The Royal Government of Bhutan holds 13,029 Bitcoin (BTC), worth roughly $755 million at current prices, according to on-chain data gathered by Arkham Intelligence.
Additionally, wallets tied to the Himalayan kingdom hold 656.013 Ethereum (ETH), worth approximately $1.5 million.
Fourth among governments
According to CoinGecko data, governments held 2.2% of Bitcoin’s supply as of August. The US was the largest holder, with 213,246 BTC, followed by China with 190,000 BTC.
Bhutan comes in fourth, holding more Bitcoin than El Salvador’s 5,800 BTC as of August end but less than the UK’s 61,000 BTC.
However, Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings allegedly are not related to seizures executed by authorities, but rather to the Himalayan kingdom’s BTC mining efforts, conducted by the state-owned investment arm Druk Holding & Investments.
Bhutan’s mining history
Bhutan has been mining Bitcoin for several years and initially kept its efforts secretive. In 2023, the country ramped up its Bitcoin mining efforts with four different sites powered by hydroelectric plants.
On-chain data shows that the wallets tied to the Bhutan government started receiving BTC as early as February 2021.
In 2023, the Himalayan kingdom attracted the attention of Bitcoin cloud mining and mining services company Bitdeer Technologies Group, which announced a mining data center that started operating in July last year.
In April, Bitdeer partnered with Druk Holding to boost Bhutan’s Bitcoin mining capabilities sixfold, as reported by Bloomberg. As a result, mining capacity in the region will be boosted to 500 megawatts by the first half of 2025.
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