SUMMARY
- Bhutan’s state-owned Druk Holdings has accumulated over $780 million in Bitcoin, representing nearly a third of the nation’s GDP, through mining operations linked to Bitdeer.
- The investment is part of a diversification strategy, with recent activity showing significant transactions with exchanges like Kraken.
Bhutan, a small Himalayan nation, has built Bitcoin holdings worth over $780 million, which accounts for about a third of its GDP. This striking move has made Bhutan the fourth-largest state-owned Bitcoin holder, taking after El Salvador as the second nation to officially hold Bitcoin. Rather than depending on asset seizures, Bhutan’s state-owned Druk Holdings Fund has obtained Bitcoin through mining operations. These mining endeavors, which ramped up in early 2023, represent a core part of the country’s technique to diversify its economy.
The mining operations are closely tied to Bitdeer, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency mining company. In collaboration with the Bhutanese government, Bitdeer set up a 100MW Bitcoin mining facility in the country, with plans to grow the capacity to 600MW by 2025. The biggest of these mining sites is found on the grounds of the now-defunct Education City project, as expressed by Arkham, an on-chain analytics tool that tracks cryptocurrency activity.
Bhutan, a country of less than 900,000 individuals, has truly measured its success by the bliss of its citizens rather than material riches. With a net domestic product of roughly under $3 billion in 2022, the country depends intensely on businesses like hydropower, tourism, and agriculture. Be that as it may, Druk Holdings has been pushing into new zones of investment to expand the economy, focusing on technology-driven sectors such as digital resources and the metaverse, in addition to extending hydropower projects.
Recent wallet activity from Druk Holdings, tracked by Arkham, has revealed regular deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin. Druk received up to 2 BTC from different sources, including other miners like Foundry and unidentified Bitcoin addresses. The wallet has also been utilized to send Bitcoin to other addresses and cryptocurrency exchanges. In July, one outstanding exchange included Druk transferring over $25 million worth of Bitcoin to the exchange Kraken, where it was likely sold.
Bhutan’s aggressive push into the cryptocurrency space, through state-owned Bitcoin mining and investments in digital resources, marks a noteworthy move in the country’s economic technique. Despite its modest estimate and underdeveloped private segment, Bhutan’s inventive approach may position it as a leader in the digital economy whereas improving its financial stability.