Government of Bhutan Holds $828M in Bitcoin.

[Finestream]

And if I'm not mistaken, they hold more than El Salvador, so the government of Bhutan is under the radar for many years. And that is something that their government should be proud of, as it could mean 25% of the country's GDP.

And if you can see, they have a diversified portfolio. So along the way, the government of Bhutan knows something that other government is the world doesn't, and that is to stack as much Bitcoin and other crypto as they can.

Yes, they are actually holding more bitcoins than El Salvador which means they were the first country that gained higher interest on bitcoin than El Salvador was. It just shows that small countries should never be underrated most particularly when it comes to acquiring the latest innovation of blockchain technology. I just hope more small countries will be able to prove this later in the future.

[Nothingtodo]

Although Bhutan is a small country in South Asia, it is known as a holder country of Bitcoin.  But my country has not been able to give any approval to Bitcoin so far. This landmark move by the Government of Bhutan will further strengthen the acceptance of Bitcoin in Bhutan. Bhutan holds over 886 million dollars worth of bitcoins and will increase its holdings of more bitcoins in the future.

[cocadalcan]

Although Bhutan is a small country in South Asia, it is known as a holder country of Bitcoin.  But my country has not been able to give any approval to Bitcoin so far. This landmark move by the Government of Bhutan will further strengthen the acceptance of Bitcoin in Bhutan. Bhutan holds over 886 million dollars worth of bitcoins and will increase its holdings of more bitcoins in the future.

El Salvador legalized Bitcoin through legal tender, a landmark event in world history and currently small countries like Bhutan have legalized it. With the ever-increasing demand for bitcoins and the ever-increasing price trend, more state institutions will start holding bitcoins in the future, as has happened in Bhutan.

[dificanovi]

Governments in all countries should also save money in BTC. By saving money in BTC, the country will get a huge profit, I am sure that people in countries that save BTC will also get profit. What is certain is that by making a profit when the price of BTC rises, the government can pay off the country's debts, the government can also provide assistance to its poor people.

[o48o]

I thought that they had just confiscated it like other countries, but they are freaking mining it? That's pretty wild, however i am not that confident that getting governments mining bitcoin is a good idea. These countries policy for mining can change over night with elections, and dumping / market suppression is a real threat.

It seems like you only like to look at the negative side of things. Why can't you look at the positive side like everyone else, the fact that governments mine or hold bitcoin shows they also see its potential and importance? Besides, even if we don't like it, what can we do and what good is complaining?

Like Bitcoin ETFs, many people don't like it because it makes Bitcoin centralized but how to prevent all this? How to prevent governments from interfering with bitcoin as it becomes more and more popular? Do you have any solutions? Instead of complaining constantly but still having no way to stop them, we should adapt.

And i doubt that many countries would go this road, as putting this much weigh on critical infra like electricity and depending on the income of that is risky as hell. Especially with countries like venezuela, that would risk their grid that's already unstable enough. And since electricity isn't cheap, it needs special conditions like mining occasionally with waste energy. That could actually work.

Just because you doubt it doesn't mean it won't happen, as iBaba said above: Rome wasn't built overnight. Look at the positive side and expect it to happen instead of doubting and complaining because that doesn't help.

Solution? There are no solutions, that comes with the territory of freedom and permissionless transactions.

But how i was being negative? I already mentioned that it's wild that they participate to mining, which i see as a sort of positive thing. I see positivity when there's positivity. I only have problems with huge whales hoarding it, and i see it problematic if governments are becoming those whales. But please explain how more of this positivity helps, when something just mainly affects to the pump-a-nomics of bitcoin?

Let me quote myself from earlier thread so i can elaborate my view on this and governments being involved:

Actually i find it weird how many people are hoping and praying that governments and leaders are doing the right things for it. It's like we are dependable on the government intervention, just to push the price to moon, and hell with the original idea of it.

And that why so many people don't seem to care, that we are now waiting price to be controlled by government blessing for it or banning it. I don't really have a solution or any scenario where it wouldn't be, and i accept this development, knowing full well that that means i don't in my core really believe in decentralization, but i thought that more people would be worried about this.

Bitcoin should be not depending on any of that as the very reason it exists is because it was supposed to be resilient against government intervention. And now we are counting on presidents to pump the price? What happened? Why people suddenly want to be dependable of such actions? Only thing i can see that we are being just greedy over the use cases it was originally designed for.

Maybe you can see from that point i am making. It's not that i am against it, i am more of nihilistic about this then idealistic and that means that i accept to work with regulations rather then fighting them, even though they can dismiss the underlying fundamentals / benefits the bitcoin had and the reason it was created. I don't however hope and pray for governments or leaders to be involved, and i don't get why so many are.

I really thought that underlying ideology behind the cryptocurrency holders had, would be idealism of self-custodity and freedom. But i guess they are as nihilistic about this as me, and instead of believing in decentralization they are just using it as a buzz word. Imho if we rely on governments on bitcoin mooning, then the price is based on nothing but promises and compliance. And i can't see those having anything to do with the fundamentals of bitcoin.

[retreat]

If the Bitcoin they get is obtained from bitcoin mining sector operating in their country, I am sure that this can be one of the important factors in driving their economy even better. Because Bhutan is not a big country, it is a small country with a population of only 800 thousand, if their government can manage the this mining sector well, it should help them to prosper their people and open up more opportunities for them to develop. El Salvador is one of the countries that can be a role model for Bhutan, all they need is to be more confident and open to investment, especially crypto mining in their country, that can be capital for them to improve their economy.

[Nrcewker]

Their government is smart, unlike any other country’s government. They know what’s valuable and what can help their country grow financially and independently. But other governments deal with their egos, and hence they don’t want to adapt the Bitcoins. For them, taxes are more important than a nation’s growth. Still, this is good news, and I am sure that the price of Bitcoins will be slightly affected by this good news. El Salvador and Bhutan gained my respect again. Let's see which country joins them in the race now.

[LogitechMouse]

13,076 BTC and 656 ETH. Well, the total amount of the tokens that they're holding might not be the same after 2 years or maybe next year (depending on the situation).

Anyway, many are looking at El Salvador because they're the first country that adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, but nobody's talking about Bhutan and the amount of coins that they're holding. They might be holding a number of coins, but you can see that around 99% of those are in either Bitcoin or Ethereum which just shows that they trust these top 2 tokens in terms of market cap. With this move of Bhutan, this also shows that any small country out there can do the same as well. Hold Bitcoins if you trust it, and it might help the country at least a little.

Well, if only all of the governments around the world knows how to buy, sell, and keep it secure. Do I expect more of these countries doing the same? Hmmm, I don't know TBH because the type of government Bhutan might've affected this decision of the government buying those Bitcoin, but who knows. We didn't expect a country like Bhutan to buy Bitcoins at this huge, right. I expect more in the future.

[eightdots]

13,076 BTC and 656 ETH. Well, the total amount of the tokens that they're holding might not be the same after 2 years or maybe next year (depending on the situation).

Anyway, many are looking at El Salvador because they're the first country that adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender, but nobody's talking about Bhutan and the amount of coins that they're holding. They might be holding a number of coins, but you can see that around 99% of those are in either Bitcoin or Ethereum which just shows that they trust these top 2 tokens in terms of market cap. With this move of Bhutan, this also shows that any small country out there can do the same as well. Hold Bitcoins if you trust it, and it might help the country at least a little.

Well, if only all of the governments around the world knows how to buy, sell, and keep it secure. Do I expect more of these countries doing the same? Hmmm, I don't know TBH because the type of government Bhutan might've affected this decision of the government buying those Bitcoin, but who knows. We didn't expect a country like Bhutan to buy Bitcoins at this huge, right. I expect more in the future.

El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender has caused many countries to change their perspective on Bitcoin. Many countries that were aware of Bitcoin’s existence but did not invest may have changed their plans. Countries, like companies, want to make a profit from their investments. Many people who invest in Bitcoin may not disclose their investments.

Many countries may have invested in Bitcoin and ETH. Some made these investments a long time ago, while others made regular purchases. As time goes by, other countries will also disclose the amount they invested. Perhaps they will continue to invest in Bitcoin without disclosing it at all.

[tabas]

It's a small country yes, but it doesn't matter how huge or small it is, right? We're all for those countries that hold Bitcoin as their public asset. IMHO, this is such a peaceful country and I have read the news that the government per se is mining Bitcoin. That's why it's very ideal for them to get into this industry because they know that there's so much potential that they can get into it while it's still quite young. And if they continue to stack for more while continuing their mining operations, that's a good job and decision for them. AFAIK, one country that held a lot of BTC was Bulgaria but I think they have later on sold it and the same goes for Germany that had became a trending thing just a few months ago.

[Ludmilla_rose1995]

News like this is good news, the pity is that it is such a small country. Any medium-sized European city has more GDP than this country. Although it is logical that the pro bitcoin movement starts in small countries like El Salvador or Bhutan. Hopefully larger countries will join in over time, perhaps soon the USA.

I am sure that for now only small countries have declared themselves to hold a lot of bitcoin, while large countries have not done so for various reasons and the most common one they throw out is the issue of privacy on bitcoin. Bhutan is a fairly peaceful and prosperous country although not as influential as large countries such as the US or China but I am sure that in the next few years what Bhutan and El Salvador are doing now will have a big impact on their countries and large countries will realize that they are lagging behind Bhutan and El Salvador.

[Luzin]

next few years what Bhutan and El Salvador are doing now will have a big impact on their countries and large countries will realize that they are lagging behind Bhutan and El Salvador.

Even I was surprised, they didn't write much in the media. Bhutan, I think thinking ahead, sees Bitcoin as a promising investment to help the country's economic development. In fact, I just read that Bhutan is the 4th largest BTC depositor. Uniquely, it was not obtained from confiscation but mining. In fact, it seems that the government is deliberately building a crypto mining factory. It seems that if there is no investigation this news will not come out.  Amazingly, the number of crypto assets owned by Bhutan is 26.9% of the national gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bhutan-revenue-bitcoin-mining-developing-nations
 

[doomloop]

Bhutan holds BTC. OK, but so what? Almost all the countries around the world are holding seized Bitcoins. Some small and underdeveloped countries like Bhutan and El Salvador are investing in Bitcoin, but that doesn't mean that Bitcoin will be widely accepted as an investment opportunity for most governments around the world. There's no point of writing forum posts about "Country A having X amount of Bitcoins", unless you want to boost your post count. I would be really surprised of news about China and India investing in BTC. Nobody cares about countries like Bhutan.

IDK about you but for me this is actually very surprising. I guess that is due to the fact that Bhutan is rarely heard as a country. News like this are important because it can motivate someone else or some country to do the same thing. Moreover, BTC is still/already widely accepted. You even said that almost all countries are hodling it. Post like the OP had is not new either. I mean we shouldn't bashed him for this. I also don't think that he is only doing this to boost his post count because he still write it carefully and precisely. To get merits maybe? But I think he also deserved it. Moving on, China and India are known countries already but the one that can surprise us is the fact that they allow BTC again because AFAIK they have banned it.

[HelliumZ]

A small country like Bhutan to take such groundbreaking steps on Bitcoin is really a matter of pride and Bhutan taught hands-on how to invest on Bitcoin in a populous country like us. Bhutan is one of the SAARC countries in South Asia, but Bhutan is the only one among the SAARC countries to have a record of official Bitcoin reserves.  But I can't say whether other countries have bitcoin reserves but such a move in Bhutan really encourages us to invest more deeply in bitcoin. But my country Bangladesh should take lessons from Bhutan and how to take revolutionary steps on Bitcoin even as a small country should take lessons from Bhutan.

[Jimmy Wales]

After El Salvador, it is good news from Bhutan. When OPEC?

[Saint-loup]

how they get cheap electricity ? They've no nuclear power plants afaik? They are using the energy of their water falls? Or they use something else to leverage their altitude in the Himalayan mountains? I guess they are able to produce hydroelectricity at a cheap price during spring and other seasons but what are they doing during winter when the water becomes ice and snow?

[Onyeeze]

Such a small country jumping into Bitcoin is interesting, and a good news. It really underlined the strategic shift toward holding $828 million in Bitcoin, mainly from their mining operations. That wasn't due to seizures of the assets, as some governments do, but large-scale mining that really ramped up in early 2023. By using Bitcoin, Bhutan should be able to broaden its traditionally single-industry economy, which depends on hydropower. Their strategy could easily become a model for other small nations willing to enter the crypto world.

Any country that know that bitcoin can help to boost their economy should go ahead and invest as many as they want, because is obvious that bitcoin nobody knows what the price will increase to, in the next three years, those countries who picked interest on gold investment have never regretted it, till date, because they saw future in gold and that is why they invested in gold, and gold is giving them exactly what they want or needed, that's why if your countries is banking in bitcoin as economy reserved, want you to do is to support because you already know what it will yield.

[AmoreJaz]

how they get cheap electricity ? They've no nuclear power plants afaik? They are using the energy of their water falls? Or they use something else to leverage their altitude in the Himalayan mountains? I guess they are able to produce hydroelectricity at a cheap price during spring and other seasons but what are they doing during winter when the water becomes ice and snow?

It says that they are utilizing their hydropower and also government's assistance. On this regard, they are exhausting their renewable sources to cater the need of its people. Also, they have excess energy produced, so they are selling the extra to countries like India. And of course, with such revenue, it can further contribute to the government's financial needs.

Source: Energy in Bhutan

[Dave1]

And if you look at the data, every one in Bhutan could have at least a Satoshi in their wallet with the kind of Bitcoin at their arsenal. So they are one of the top 5 countries that hold so much Bitcoin, like El Salvador, US and China.

Again, they flew under the radar for most crypto enthusiast, but now since they have a lot, everyone is very interested on how such a small country has so much Bitcoin as their reserved. We can only attribute it to their government as they find a way to take advantage of their abundance in electricity to mine Bitcoin. It just shows that Bitcoin can really be a good hedge and holding for any government around the world, big or small.

[BABY SHOES]

Data shows bitcoin owned by Bhutan: https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/entity/druk-holding-investments

I don't know if El Salvador has more or Bhutan has more for them to have in bitcoin?

It could be that next year if bitcoin is bullish this country will become a wealthy country especially with a small population if it is equalized maybe the population will get a share.

Now some countries have started to have bitcoin for HODLing.