Bhutan, a country with a population of under one million, ranks as the world’s fourth-largest sovereign Bitcoin owner.
According to Arkham, the Kingdom of Bhutan holds over 13,000 Bitcoin (BTC) tokens valued at over $750 million as of Sept. 16. Only the U.S., China, and the U.K. have larger BTC holdings. Bhutan overtook El Salvador to claim fourth place and joined world governments that cumulatively control over 2.2% of BTC’s total supply, per CoinGecko.
Where most authorities in the rankings acquired BTC from criminal seizures and crackdowns, or in El Salvador’s case, daily purchases, Bhutan grew its BTC stash through mining.
Arkham reported that the South Asian Kingdom expanded its BTC mining operations since early 2023. Through its investment arm, Druk Holdings, the nation leveraged its mountainous landscape to set up several Bitcoin mining facilities.
In one case, Bhutan transformed an abandoned Education City project into a large-scale crypto mining complex. There’s no indication that the government plans to sell its BTC, but its overall crypto strategy remains largely unknown.
Bitcoin caches appear across the globe
National balance sheets and BTC increasingly intersected as global blockchain adoption surged. Even apex banks in Norway and Switzerland amassed exposure to the so-called digital gold.
While some see this development as bullish for BTC, there are concerns about whether governments owning Bitcoin aligns with the ethos of Satoshi Nakamoto, BTC’s pseudonymous creator.
As adoption advances and companies like Arkham uncover more sovereign BTC caches, two questions loom over the industry: Who else owns Bitcoin, and what do they plan to do with it?
