Key Points
- Bhutan government’s $750 million in Bitcoin holdings are now labeled on Arkham.
- This is now the 4th largest government with BTC holdings on the platform.
According to the latest reports, Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings are now labeled on Arkham.
The country’s government reportedly holds $750 million in BTC and these holdings come from Bitcoin mining operations carried out by the Kingdom of Bhutan’s investment arm, Druk Holdings.
Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom on the Himalayas’ Eastern edge and it’s officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan. Arkham is reportedly the first to publicly identify these BTC addresses for the government.
Bhutan, the 4th Largest Government With BTC Holdings on Arkham
According to Arkham reports, Bhutan is now the 4th largest government with Bitcoin holdings on the platform, with over $750 million in BTC.
They note that, unlike most governments, Bhutan’s BTC does not come from law enforcement asset seizures, but from mining operations, which have ramped up significantly since early 2023.
By comparison, the German government’s Bitcoin holdings came from seizing BTC from Movie2K, a film piracy website in January 2024, while the US government also had about $2 billion in BTC holdings coming from seized Silk Road assets.
Bitcoin Mining Operations in Bhutan
Arkham notes that Bhutan has constructed Bitcoin mining facilities in multiple locations, with the largest one being on the site of the now-defunct Education City project.
Arkham was reportedly able to corroborate the timeline of on-chain activity with time-lapse satellite imagery of facility construction.
They listed the government transactions including the ones from three days ago until today.
Also, according to their notes, the government addresses have been sending funds to Binance and Kraken crypto exchanges, as shown via X:
It’s also worth noting that Bhutam has one-third of its GDP in Bitcoin, according to official data.
This is reminiscent of another country mining and stacking Bitcoin, El Salvador.
El Salvador’s BTC Reserves: “The Path to True Freedom”
Not too long ago, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood stated that El Salvador could see its gross domestic product increase tenfold over the next five years if it stays with its BTC and AI adoption plan under Nayib Bukele’s presidency.
El Salvador became the first country in the world to use BTC as a legal tender in 2021.
Recently, El Salvador’s President announced that the country would no longer rely on external debt to finance its upcoming national budget, an announcement that was confirmed by Stacy Herbert, the Director of the National Bitcoin Office under Bukele.
She also said that the country is on the path “to true freedom.”
In August, El Salvador announced a $1.6 billion record investment for Bitcoin City.
