A small country in South Asia is building an enormous Bitcoin position. And they aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
What’s happening:
- The government of Bhutan now owns more than $700M USD worth of Bitcoin which were earned through Bitcoin mining operations within the country that were established by their investment arm Druk Holding and Investment
Why it matters:
- Bhutan is a very small country located in South Asia on the eastern edge of the Himalayas who has launched one of the most successful government led Bitcoin mining operations for the purpose of acquiring Bitcoin to hold as an asset
- Unlike most other countries who own significant amounts of Bitcoin, Bhutan has not acquired their Bitcoin holdings through law enforcement or asset seizures
By the numbers:
- Bhutan now is the 4th largest holder of Bitcoin amongst countries, behind just the United States, China and the United Kingdom
- The total population of Bhutan is less than 800,000
- Global governments cumulatively hold about 2% of all existing Bitcoin currently in circulation
Going deeper:
- The investment arm of Bhutan previously partnered with Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) to develop a large scale Bitcoin mining facility within the country which runs on hydropower
- Many politicians have been urging governments to begin to hold Bitcoin directly as an asset, which has also become a growing trend amongst publicly traded companies lately
- Central banks have even begun ramping up exposure to Bitcoin through purchasing equity in MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) according to recent 13-F filings made with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
The intrigue:
- Tether previously made a notable $100M USD investment into Bitdeer to accelerate the build out of new data centres for both Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence cloud computing
